In 1969, Pat Tarrant and Cyril Fleming purchased rights to open up the first Canadian Golden Skillet fried chicken franchise (originally from Richmond, Virginia) in Newfoundland.

[5][6] According to the company, Mary Brown, who was from Petersburg, Virginia,[4] was the creator of the chain's proprietary recipe for American Southern-fried chicken, which was sold to Tarrant and Fleming in 1969.

[7] By 1972, Mary Brown's had grown beyond Newfoundland, opening locations in Oshawa and Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area.

More recently, Mary Brown's has opened several locations in British Columbia, and a store in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

The owner of Mary Brown's is Gregory Roberts of PI Enterprises Group, an entrepreneur and chartered accountant from Triton, Newfoundland and Labrador.

[19] Prior to joining Mary Brown's, Chahin was the vice president of operations for Chartwells, a division of Compass Group Canada.

In April 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mary Brown's sponsored the temporary removal of all paywalls from Postmedia Network newspaper websites for the month.

[25] In October 2021, Mary Brown’s acquired the naming rights to the Mile One Centre in St. John's, in a 10-year deal valued at $1.5 million.