$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤
The different spices and flavors of Korean fried chicken are multitude. So are the number of Korean fried chicken joints you can now walk to around Capitol Hill.
The latest — Chicken Factory — quietly opened a few weeks back and has put the former home of the popular Marination Station back into motion for the first time since the popular counter joint shut down at the height of the pandemic in September 2020 after a decade of business above the intersection of Pike and Broadway.
Don’t let Chicken Factory’s name and its seemingly ripe for national expansion logo fool you. It’s a homegrown business from Seattle restaurateur Kim Young. The chicken is made to order and comes hot and crispy. Ownership honed its logistics with Korean dishes and drinks at Tig Kitchen and Bar in the University District.
The Chicken Factory is a simpler, more streamlined affair with self-serve ordering and a menu centered around Korean fried chicken and a few treats like deep fried mac n cheese balls. The small space can also punch above its weight with a larger than you might expect kitchen capacity — Marination used to run its catering business out of the location.
The opening is part of a wave of smaller new additions to the Capitol Hill food and drink scene as the debuts of larger, more traditional restaurant setups have slowed. There is also a strong Korean flavor to the mix. A signature example? Korn Dog and its K-pop worthy Korean corn dogs on E Pine. We might also see a future with Korean fried chicken on every Pike/Pine corner. Late last year, Pelicana added to the mix with the opening the US offshoot of the popular South Korean chain across the street from Korn Dog at Harvard and Pine. Meanwhile, there is also the arrival of the M2M Korean grocery concept at Capitol Hill Station to consider.
With the restaurant space next to the popular Ooink ramen joint on the upper level of the Harvard Market shopping center above the Broadway at Pike QFC back in motion, the center is also preparing for another food and drink change. Longtime tenant Tangerine Tree is making way for new provider of Vietnamese cuisine, Crane’s Landing.
Chicken Factory is now open at 1412 Harvard with daily 11 AM to 9 PM hours.
Ugh, this is like college kid food. You may as well just have a bunch of fast food joints flooding the neighborhood. I walk by them all the time and they look like depressing places to eat, brightly lit with no character whatsoever.
The real discussion we’re missing is about the fact that all the new places opening are fast-food style (fast turnover, rarely any waitstaff, just order at the counter, maybe bussers or maybe counter pickup). Why is this?
It’s because of staff shortages, $15/hr minimum wage, higher rent, and inflationary food costs. This trend is here to stay, so we’ll be left with high-end full service restaurants charging $50+/person for the experience and a bunch of fast-foodish places making it with near self-service and delivery orders.
I think a big part of it is they believe covid-19 is more or less here to stay (or at least the changes in consumer habits that it fostered will endure) and take-out/delivery will be the main part of their business for the foreseeable future. I certainly wouldn’t invest in a full-service restaurant today.
Korean chicken has become the go-to food for children’s parties, pushing aside pizza.