After more than two decades of serving soul food to Oaklanders, the Home of Chicken and Waffles in Jack London Square marked its last day of operations Monday.
The restaurant started serving customers in 2004 at its Embarcadero West location and moved to its current location on Fourth Street in 2024. Now, owner Derreck Johnson is hanging up his hat and moving out of the restaurant business.
“I’m very proud of the work we’ve done over these 23 years,” said Johnson, shuttling between greeting customers at their tables and tending the bar during the restaurant’s frantic final lunch service. “It’s just time for a new chapter.”
The restaurant, Johnson said, was started by his cousins as a franchise of the Roscoe’s House of Chicken N’ Waffles chain of restaurants. In 2004, Johnson took over the reins of the restaurant and transformed it into a standalone establishment serving a menu inspired by his own family.
At the heart of the restaurant’s offerings has been Southern-style crispy fried chicken and buttery waffles and syrup, served with sides like candied yams, grits, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens.
Fried catfish, biscuits, and black-eyed peas are some of the other soul food classics on the menu.
Over the years, the restaurant has attracted politicos like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton, and Kamala Harris.
The restaurant has also hosted players from the Oakland Raiders and the Golden State Warriors, Johnson said.
“For me personally, the biggest highlight was watching young families of all ethnic backgrounds — who probably can’t afford to take their kids to a sit-down restaurant — come in and be customers, and us being able to service them,” said Johnson.
It’s just time for a new chapter.
Derreck Johnson, owner of Home of Chicken and Waffles
In addition to being a restaurateur, Johnson, 61, also tried his hand at a political career. He ran for Oakland City Council in 2020 and, in the mayoral election in 2022, but was unsuccessful in both attempts.
Oakland native Kisha Jackson, a regular at the restaurant, believes it was Johnson’s ability to bring a community and family ethos to the restaurant that made the Home of Chicken and Waffles an Oakland institution.
That, and the food.
“I’m always down for some red beans and rice and chicken here!” Jackson said.
Jackson also expressed disappointment at the spate of restaurant closures in Oakland.
Plank, a restaurant and entertainment venue in the same Jack London Square neighborhood, also shuttered earlier this month.
“I only keep hearing about rent and taxes, rent and taxes,” Jackson said, “so people have to close their establishments.”
Rachel Hersh, a first-timer who managed to score herself some chicken and waffles on the restaurant’s final day, echoed Jackson’s concerns.
“Spaces like this that perpetuate home recipes and history, that’s what I love,” Hersh said. “And that’s what I’m afraid that we will lose,” she added.
Johnson said that the city and the county have been very supportive throughout his enterprise but hopes that the city leadership takes note of shifting trends and helps groom the next generation of business leaders in Oakland.
Having said that, Johnson will not be doing any of the grooming; despite receiving offers to mentor others who could take over the business, he has decided he wants a clean break.
Where does he go next?
“The beach, somewhere!”