The first KFC franchise opened in Salt Lake City in 1952.
The franchise was operated by Pete Harman, a Utah restaurant owner who became one of Harland Sanders’s earliest business partners. Harman helped turn Sanders’s roadside fried-chicken operation into a repeatable restaurant concept and is often credited with introducing the chicken bucket.
This event was a major step in KFC’s expansion. Sanders had developed his pressure-frying method and seasoning blend earlier, but franchising allowed other restaurants to prepare and sell chicken using his system.
The Salt Lake City opening is sometimes confused with the date KFC was founded. Sanders began selling fried chicken in Kentucky decades earlier, while 1952 marks the first franchise location. It is also distinct from KFC’s first restaurant outside North America, which opened later in the United Kingdom.