(Image: Jackson’s Catfish Corner)
40 years of the family business came to an end in the Central District last week with a final 50 pounds of catfish as Terrell Jackson and Jackson’s Catfish Corner called it quits.
“My grandparents started this business in January 1985. This is now 40 years of business. 40 years of business and I just cannot do it anymore,” Jackson said in a heartfelt video posted to the 23rd and Jackson restaurant owner’s social media last Friday. “I don’t have the team, the structure, I don’t have nothing right now. Just doing shit on my own is very hard and I don’t, I think I just think I did all I can do in Seattle, you know what I’m saying?”
In the announcement, Jackson invited regulars by for a last po boy or two at the joint he opened at the corner in 2021 after years of pop-ups and smaller projects carrying on his family’s Catfish Corner legacy, saying he had about 50 pounds of catfish left, 20 or so burgers, and some oysters and calamari.
The final ingredients really were about all Jackson had left to give.
“I don’t want this to be a sad time or heartbreak time or ‘what are you gonna do next’ time. It’s that I did all I can time. I did all I can,” Jackson said, saying he was “maxed out” and ready to look for new opportunities.
The walls of Jackson’s Catfish Corner were a testament to its popularity, covered up and down in signatures of customers.
In an interview with Converge Media, Jackson said the Central District’s changes and the costs of doing business in Seattle caught up with him, citing the jump in the minimum wage and lower than expected foot traffic due to the neighborhood’s changing demographics.
“Neighborhood foot traffic, the ones [that] supported a business like this one, are no longer really here,” Jackson told Converge.
CHS reported here in 2021 as Jackson prepared to open the new restaurant on the street level of the Community House Mental Health affordable apartments and office development at the corner.
The 2021 Juneteenth opening of Jackson’s Catfish Corner and the move of Simply Soulful from Madison Valley to join the Vulcan housing and Amazon Fresh grocery development across the intersection were held up as examples of Black ownership in the midst of the massive redevelopment investments reshaping the area. Now, less than four years later, the closure of Jackson’s Catfish Corner is a reminder how fragile that ownership can be.
The area around 23rd and Jackson, meanwhile, continues to be challenged by the growth of new apartment buildings and displacement and ongoing public safety issues. CHS reported here in October 2023 as community groups called for more to be done to make the area safer after a driveby shooting sent a man to the hospital and damaged a daycare. Early last year, a woman was shot and killed on nearby S. Main.
Other investments around 23rd and Jackson are hoped to help balance more positive change. Black Coffee Northwest has taken over the former Starbucks at the corner that was once touted by the coffee giant as one of its proudest achievements and its first ever stand alone cafe as it teamed with investors like NBA great Magic Johnson on a string of “inner-city stores.” The space was left empty by the exit of the company after the labor-embattled coffee giant slammed the door on a handful of Seattle locations citing safety and crime concerns. Black Coffee Northwest’s ramp-up to operate the new shop has been slow with the space not currently open for regular daily service.
Across the intersection, Seattle Fish Guys is still doing its thing despite the occasional challenge including this big salmon ripoff at the store last year.
Now the northwest corner will stand empty as the Jackson’s Catfish Corner space waits for a new owner to move in.
Before they move on, many in the neighborhood are looking back and remembering 40 years of Catfish Corner and Jackson’s efforts to keep the legacy alive. After the original Catfish Corner on MLK and Cherry, closed in 2014, Jackson took on the family business. Starting with pop-ups, he eventually secured a brick-and-mortar location on Rainier, then Yesler, and even had a food truck in Portland, before an incarnation in Skyway. Jackson eventually brought Catfish Corner back to the Central District.
In his goodbye message, he thanked the neighborhood and the city for its support. “I appreciate y’all, the support from everyone around the world that’s come in her and signed these walls,” Jackson said. “From mayors to Seahawk players to celebrities to regular people. I just appreciate everyone that stepped through these doors and supported me and my business.”
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Sad to see it go. That “living wage” sure makes sense when it is a factor in causing businesses to close. Perfect is the enemy of good again. The Seattle Progressive creed.
Uhhh nope. It’s the rent.
He literally referenced the minimum wage as a contributing factor. “citing the jump in the minimum wage and lower than expected foot traffic due to the neighborhood’s changing demographics.” Read the article before commenting.
Exactly. If rent were a factor in their closing there would be no reason for him to NOT mention it along with the others he stated above.
But hey, CH Rez is clearly an expert on this subject so we should probably just take their word for it. I’m sure they have a lot of experience running businesses and balancing payrolls in here in Seattle.
A lot of businesses don’t think of the rent when they talk to journalists, either because it’s easier to blame paying the people that actually keep the business alive for them a more fair wage, or because they’re so used to people hammering into them it’s anything but the rent that they don’t consider it.
I’ve talked to owners that said it was rent when they didn’t in articles, or I looked up the rent for the space after they left and it’s astronomical.
Having to pay your workers more is definitely going to be an issue when you’re paying 10k a month for a small square footage.
As a small restaurant owner myself, I can tell you from experience that market rate commercial rent in Seattle is a fraction of the payroll cost. It has been on a 3% increase for decades year over year. In other words, sustained and predictable. Your flippant answer “uh no …” implies to me that at best, you had an indirect conversation with an owner of a business that never got into any detail about the books. The tip credit, which has nothing to do with “fairness”, since it’s existence would acknowledge that tipped employees make more than the calculated living wage, was removed, in spite of local politicians signaling that they would do something to maintain it – something that would be fair to business owners and workers alike. This sudden, drastic, and severe increase is resulting in tens of thousands of dollars worth of new expense in 2025 for small restaurateurs, a far more consequential jump than rent. How many fucking times do I have to explain how the tip credit works?
Apparently an infinite number of times. You have my sympathies.
so it’s the property taxes? I thought we love those.
Rent was likely not named as an issue because of the below-market rent and long-term 15 year lease deal with the nonprofit building owner Community House Mental Health Agency (search of the stories of their opening has some of these details in different places).
The earlier UW study on Seattle’s minimum wage increase showed that there were tradeoffs in terms of hours and benefits for lower-wage workers as businesses adjust to different/new costs… just like with any cost increase! I think it’s totally ok, and probably good for good/better policy to honestly acknowledge and mitigate as necessary different impacts of cost increases – including rent and build out expenses, labor costs, inflation, price of goods, etc. if the goal is to support locally owned small businesses, particularly Black-owned legacy businesses. (For the record I’m pro minimum wage increase! And think there also should be some additional policies that reflect the low-margin realities of most small businesses in the City and County like a greater commitment to local procurement and circular economy policies…)
For those curious on the rent specific piece, here’s one program the city has launched to address the issue (not applicable for all situations and there should be more): https://www.seattle.gov/economic-development/grants-and-funding/business-community-ownership-fund
More importantly, rent and rent increases are defined very specifically in any lease agreement. It is not a surprise, the increases are gradual, and everything is predictable.
Considering that the PayUp ordinance also put a dent in restaurant delivery orders, this might be the nail to the coffin for many struggling mom & pop restaurants. Progressive policies which will drive up unemployment in the local restaurant industry.
Below Broadway…that is such disingenuous nonsense.
The problem is high rent from landlords.
Why should the workers who keep this city running, looking to make ends meet, have to work for tips instead of a proper living wage when the average income in this city is $150,000 for the tech sector and $79,300 for everyone else…?
Are you a commercial landlord trying to pit small businesses against their workers to take the heat off of your own landlord grift?
Either you just can’t do math or hate poor people…or both. Lay off the wage workers, bud. We all know you don’t work a proper job, so just stay out of the conversation if you’re not going to put forward anything of substance that helps small businesses or working people…
In other words shut up if you don’t agree with me. What a wonderful message from the inclusive side of the aisle.
Imagine a world in which there are two or more problems. How hard it would be to comprehend a high-functioning solution, but how much more empathetic you might be toward opinions that vary slightly from yours. What if … now hear me out … what ifffffff … rent was high AAAND the elimination of the tip credit (which accounts for a small portion of most peoples’ tips, costs employers a disproportionately large amount) are … no seriously, hear me out … BOTH contributing factors? Whoa wtf … that would be wild.
Yeah that would be wild…woah…walking and chewing gum.
The thing is the tip credit is wrong AND removing the word “landlord” for our vocabulary when listing “jobs that should exist” are both correct positions here…if you’re in favor of working people.
If you support landlords or don’t care about working people dealing with inflation and the cost of living (considering workers are doing worse in our modern economy than business owners of course), then go ahead and agree with any of the yahoos responding but not hearing what I’m saying. Probably because their property investments are too big of a monkey on their back and they’re over leveraged now and don’t want to think about the prospect of having to get a real job.
You are STILL missing my point. I’m saying that demonizing landlords isn’t necessary (it’s a distraction). ALSO the tip credit should be reinstated, since the vast majority of tipped workers make far more than the livable wage as defined by the $20.76/hr minimum (MINIMUM) wage. Forcing employers to pay toward this sends most tipped employees into a pretty fantastic income while business owners struggle. If you start by eliminating presumptions about shit you know nothing about, we’ll all be better off (like, check yourself when you see your hands typing the word “probably”).
Even making good money in Seattle most of us cant afford to eat out at the current prices + service charges and tips. I barely ever eat out anymore because it’s just too damn expensive and doesnt feel worth it. You can cook a great meal at home for less than the price of lunch for two at most Seattle places.
he doesn’t mention rent for the restaurant at all – he does mention rent for residents, which yes, is a HUGE problem. We need more supply
Grow up
It’s not even “perfect” really. If progressive policies force small businesses to close then that means fewer job opportunities to earn a “living wage.” But I guess folks can live off of unemployment?
Agreed. Not sure what good an increase in minimum wage and tips are if restaurants keep closing and jobs are lost. To people like chHill or CH Rez – what do you think the response would be if you ask any of the service workers who were affected by restaurant closings, if they would prefer to keep their job for a slightly lower base pay or to keep the tip exemption they, I bet the majority would say they to keep their job rather than having to enter the job market and look for something new.
“Black Coffee Northwest’s ramp-up to operate the new shop has been slow”…
Slow? How about mystifying? What is going on, bankruptcy before operating? What’s the story?
That place has been sitting for a year after all kinds of fanfare. How does that work?
I’ve been wondering the same thing for like a year now.
The people that ran it really seemed like they had no idea what they were doing.
Yet another small business succumbs, at least in part, to the expiration of the tip credit.
You mean rent
You realize he actually mentioned the minimum wage, right? You know that building has below market rent, right? STFU and listen.
The prices here were high even for Seattle, and Simply Soulful across the street offers a similar menu. For that matter, the 23rd Ave Brewing guys are doing soul food now too. It’s way too much of the same cuisine at a single intersection, they are (predictably) cannibalizing one another.
I’m still grieving the closure of Oaky’s Tex-Mex and Central Pizza (the bougie Pizza Lounge in its place is not at all the same). Thank goodness MedMix seems to be doing well. Gosh how I would love to see a casual Italian joint in the area, nothing fancy.
Everyone’s arguing about rent vs wages and here I am thinking about how irritating it was just getting to this awesome food. No street parking, and the only lot nearby is an ongoing catastrophe. This intersection is cursed. Hope Seattle Fish Guys can keep it up
try walking?
That corner is definitely not a great location to be trying to run a sit-down place, even a small one. Being a few blocks east on Jackson might have helped, but who knows.
So sorry to see Catfish Corner go! It’s been a neighborhood institution almost my whole life. When I was young veg eating there with meateaters, the family would fuss over me and make me special dishes. They catered a lot of my work parties. My condolences to Jackson!
Every time there’s a post like this commenters here have a giant debate about the minimum wage, rent, does the restaurant actually suck, etc.
But policy changes always affect businesses at the margin. A large restaurant empire isn’t going to fall because of the tip credit expiring, but a small struggling one-off restaurant is made unsustainable when labor costs jump 20%.
(Doesn’t sound like Catfish Corner guy had years to game out strategy, saving a bunch of money in order to run at a loss in 2025 (???), but was surviving year to year like most small businesses.)
We’re going to be hearing about business closures for a bit & these closures result in higher unemployment. Higher cost of doing business means eating out is going to be more expensive. Maybe fewer people will eat out, impacting tips. This is economic policy in action and there are always trade-offs involved. I’m not saying the tip credit is perfect policy. I’m saying that people who insist there is no trade off and “living wage go up!” don’t know what they’re talking about and will distract you with another topic they don’t know how to evaluate the trade-offs for: commercial rent control.
Thank you for contributing a fresh, nuanced perspective. The only thing I’d disagree with here is the commercial rent control. The property is worth what someone would pay for it. If nobody wants to sign a 5 years lease for something unattainable, the landlord will continue to not make money on their investment. Rent, being so much less of a concern than minimum wage (in terms of the size of that line item), isn’t the bogeyman that our most progressive comments suggest. It’s a carryover argument from the residential side, which is a completely different argument, since it it so much larger a percentage of an individual’s income. In a business, your rent is more like 6%-10% your revenue, but an individual is paying more like 30% your income. See the difference? The real problem with wealth inequality in this state is the absence of an income tax, and until we change the constitution of this state to allow for it, cut property and sales taxes, build safety nets, maybe establish UBI, this whole argument is a counterproductive waste of time, and one cheered by the most wealthy of WA residents, as the plebes tear out each others’ throats.
Commercial rent control is probably more about not having a glut of empty shopfront space due to owners holding out for high rents that most new businesses can’t afford. Lowering the barrier to entry for small, locally owned business is probably overall good. The city and its people are not served by having a bunch of vacant commercial space, regardless of how the capital owning class feels about it, and whether or not it provides them with tax write-offs.
These kinds of policies could take the form of something along the lines of “if your commercial real estate sits empty and unrented for more than X months, it will fall under the commercial rent control policy for X period (a few years, perhaps)”. There would of course be gaming of such a system, but it might be better than what we’ve got now.
How about you run for office. Then people can tell you to your face that all the “probably” statements you keep making aren’t based in experience. You continue to toot your horn without responding to opposing viewpoints. When you get legitimately shot down, you just leave the thread and blow smoke on someone else’s comment. It’s kinda bizarre.
Also, I’ve don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone provide more than surface commentary backed up by their own personal experience in response to the vast majority of the comments here. I’d consider “getting shot down” something based in actual data that can be pointed to, with appropriate analysis. Otherwise it’s just differing opinions from anonymous people with varying levels of information, which I tend to take with a grain of salt.
I say “probably” because I haven’t (not in like… six or seven years, I think, when I was teaching urban planning graduate students) looked at the distribution and occupancy rates for non-office commercial real estate in Seattle, tried to get representative rent numbers, and then looked at the public policy literature to see the impacts of various commercial rent control policies over time while trying to control for differences in overall regulatory regimes and economic conditions… you know, the kind of thing actually necessary to figure out if a change to public policy is a good idea or not.
You know, I find the tip thing kind of baffling. You can just post that your business does not take tips, put the necessary increase in wages into your prices, and remind people that they were gonna pay more anyway. A (growing) number of restaurants and cafes around the city have been doing so for years. Usually with a “We believe in paying our staff a living wage!” declaration.
That said, seems like dude was just tired and had been hanging on grimly for a while. As you said, changes usually hit people on the margins the most.
Jesus, dude. So dismissive. If you actually worked in the industry, you’d know that there are almost to entirely no businesses making a tipless economy work. Nobody wants to work for a tipless restaurant. It’s a progressive pipe dream and it is shrinking, not growing. Go ask the folks at Temple Pastries how it worked out. It’s incredibly difficult to make it work, and with a more competitive environment in 2025, it will become less and less feasible. You really need to check yourself when you find chances to burp up these flippant comments.
Sad to see. It always seemed busy when I was there, but had turned into more of a takeout place. Appeared to have the bare minimum of employees, so I wonder if wages was a big factor.
He specifically called out the minimum wage increase as a contributing factor.
MAN. rip to the best collards in town, hands down. this one hurts