At this point, it’s almost become a running joke in San Diego’s restaurant scene: Chick & Hawk – the endlessly delayed fried chicken concept from skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and chef Andrew Bachelier – may actually be opening this week.
According to local sources, the long-promised Leucadia restaurant will begin friends-and-family soft opening nights over the early part of this week. While no formal grand opening announcement has been made, signs suggest that the doors at last may be swinging open – more than four years after the project was first announced.
Originally publicized in 2021 and “coming soon” since the summer of 2022, Chick & Hawk’s journey from concept to completion has been a study in endurance. The 1,421-square-foot space at 145 Leucadia Boulevard, once home to the notorious Fulano’s Café, sat in near-stasis for years while neighboring businesses opened, thrived, and sometimes even closed again. By now, it’s fair to say Chick & Hawk has taken longer to open than the lifespan of most food trends – including, arguably, the fried chicken sandwich craze it was built around…