The founder of San Diego's popular Tajima chain of ramen restaurants opened Corner Chicken in the space that last housed Cafe Chloe in the East Village just last summer, but the Nashville-style fried chicken eatery has already shuttered.
Well before San Diego became inundated with ramen eateries, Isamu "Sam" Morikizono was a pioneer with the opening of his first Tajima location in Kearny Mesa in 2001. Tajima now boasts six San Diego branches and another outpost in Tijuana. In 2017, Morikizono teamed up with Cesar Vallin, the previous owner of now-defunct Prospect Bar & Grill in La Jolla, and Setaro Takashi, who operates more than 30 restaurants in Japan, to transform the 7,500 square-foot space previously occupied by the short-lived Entrada in San Diego's Little Italy neighborhood into what is now Cloak & Petal. Morikizono originally took over the longtime Cafe Chloe space in San Diego's East Village with the intent on opening a fast-casual modern Japanese steakhouse concept dubbed Butcher & Co., but later decided to jump on the Nashville hot chicken bandwagon and changed directions to turn the space into an Asian fusion fried chicken restaurant named Corner Chicken.
Corner Chicken opened in late June 2020, offering a cookie-cutter Nashville fried chicken restaurant menu centered around spicy fried chicken, available on the bone, as chicken tenders or as a sandwich. The restaurant announced on social media that it would be permanently closing after end of business on October 18. Corner Chicken was represented by local PR company Alternative Strategies, who at no point reached out to this publication with any information about the concept.
For more information, visit thecornerchicken.com.
