Serving up chicken and waffles to hungry town.

Mention culinary combinations and certain pairings immediately come to mind peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, coined beef and cabbage.

How about fried chicken and waffles?

That union may seem unlikely but it has become a Los Angeles tradition, thanks to Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles.

Since opening in a tiny diner in the heart of Hollywood more than two decades ago, Roscoe's has blossomed into a local soul food empire, with stores in South Central L.A., Pasadena and the mid-City area. New outlets are scheduled to open in Inglewood and Long Beach and plans are under way for a restaurant in San Francisco's newly redeveloped Fillmore District.

Roscoe's also has begun scouting locations for its first out-of-state restaurant, to be located either in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston or Dallas-Fort Worth.

Impressive growth indeed - especially considering the staggering rate of failure faced by restaurateurs. Roscoe's success becomes even more remarkable given that its menu consists of little besides various permutations of crispy pan-fried chicken and sweet, buttery waffles.

"We've developed a formula that keeps people coming back," said Jai Rich, the chain's director of marketing and manager of the South-Central location at the corner of Manchester and Main streets. "Once you come in and try the menu, it sticks to you. It satisfies a craving that you didn't realize you had."

That craving has translated into a strong bottom line for Roscoe's, which logged chainwide sales of about $5 million last year, up from about $2.5 million in 1992, according to Rich. The four shops currently employ about 120 people, up from just a handful when Roscoe's first opened its doors in 1976.

Local food critic Merrill Schindler, a longtime Roscoe's aficionado and editor of the L.A. Zagat Survey, said he is not surprised by the chain's success.

"The prices are low, the portions are gigantic, the food is terrific," Schindler said. "It is the quintessential guilty pleasure meal."

As unusual as it might seem, the marriage of chicken and waffles actually has deep roots.

Thomas Jefferson brought a waffle iron back from France in the 1790s and the combination began appearing in cookbooks shortly thereafter. The pairing was enthusiastically embraced by African Americans in the South. For a people whose cuisine was based almost entirely on the scraps left behind by landowners and plantation families, poultry was a rare delicacy; in a flapjack culture, waffles were similarly exotic.

As a result, chicken and waffles for decades has been a special-occasion meal in African American families, often supplying a hearty Sunday morning meal before a long day in church.

"This is what we would fix for ourselves if we had the time," said George Thomas, a Compton minister who was enjoying a "Herb's Special" - half a chicken smothered with gravy and onions and two waffles - at the South-Central restaurant on a recent weekday afternoon. "It's a real treat."

The combination was brought to Los Angeles by Herb Hudson, a New York entrepreneur who noticed that the thigh, wing and waffle combo was by far the most popular item on the menu of Well's, a popular soul food restaurant in Harlem.

Lured west by the warm weather, Hudson found a tiny spot at the intersection of Gower Street and Sunset Boulevard and decided to open a restaurant specializing in nothing but chicken and waffles.

"I asked myself, 'what don't we have that New York does?' "said Hudson. "The answer was chicken and waffles."

The eatery was named "Roscoe's" after Hudson's partner, who abandoned the project soon after the restaurant opened.

"It sounds better than 'Herb's,' don't you think?" asked Hudson.

As it turned out, the timing and location were perfect.

In the mid-1970s, diners were beginning to shun red meat and eat more chicken instead. And thanks to its location at the center of L.A.'s entertainment industry, the restaurant soon became a favorite late-night haunt of African American musicians and record executives - a status Roscoe's continues to enjoy.

Regulars range from Roberta Flack and Luther Vandross to Angela Bassett and gangsta rapper MC Eiht. Hollywood stars including Jay Leno, Sharon Stone and Bruce Willis have sung the chain's praises in interviews. Producer Quincy Jones rented the entire Pico store for his birthday last year and has been known to order scores of to-go meals when he takes his band on tour.

The Hollywood restaurant proved so popular that Roscoe's opened a second restaurant on Washington Boulevard and La Brea Avenue; when it outgrew that spot, the eatery moved to a larger space nearby on Pico Boulevard just west of La Brea.

That location also has proven popular - in fact a bit too popular for nearby homeowners, who have complained about noise, traffic and litter generated by the restaurant's patrons. In response, Roscoe's recently scaled back its hours and now doses at midnight instead of 2 a.m. - although the restaurant has begun a petition drive in an effort to get its original hours restored.

Meanwhile, the South Central shop - located, unpromisingly, on Manchester Avenue at the border between the territories of the notorious Crips and Bloods street gangs - opened its doors in 1990 and has been growing at a rate of 5 percent a year ever since. A fourth outlet opened in Pasadena four years later.

However steady, that expansion has not been easy. Echoing a lament of many African American entrepreneurs, Rich said that Roscoe's has been stymied by a lack of financing. In the early days, Rich and Hudson would purchase chicken at the local grocery store because no distributor would touch them. Credit cards and personal loans have been crucial to the chain's success.

"It's been a nightmare," said Hudson. "I've gone from bank to bank to bank."

Added Rich: "We've built this out of our pockets."

These days, things are bit easier. The company owns the entire mini-mall - dubbed "Waffle Plaza" - that houses its South-Central restaurant, providing the company with the collateral necessary to secure bank loans and lines of credit.

That's good news, because Roscoe's has no intention of slowing down, according to Rich.

"We have a lot of growing to do," he said. "We're a long way from where we want to be."

Spotlight

Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles

Year founded: 1976 Core business: Chain of restaurants Top executive: Herb Hudson Sales in 1992: $2.5 million Sales in 1996: $5 million Employees in 1976: 10 Employees in 1997: 120 Goal: To become an industry leader in casual dining. Driving force: Pride. "Our slogan is, 'What a difference pride makes.'"