A longtime Oakland soul-food restaurant whose founder is “cousins” with Kamala Harris is closing up shop.
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Home of Chicken & Waffles, located at 247 Fourth St. near Jack London Square, will have its last day on Aug. 31.
“I’m just ready for something different in life,” says founder Derreck Johnson. “I am at this age in my last quarter where I’m living with more summers behind me than in front of me, and I don’t want to spend them in the restaurant business. No disrespect to the restaurant business, but my time has come and gone.”
Home of Chicken & Waffles opened in 2004 at 444 Embarcadero West and moved recently to its current location on Fourth Street. The restaurant started off as a franchise of L.A.’s legendary Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, but later became family-owned.
Many media outlets have talked up its signature fried chicken and waffles, as well as its commitment to hiring previously incarcerated people. Visit Oakland writes that it “offers guests down-home Southern soul food with a warm and welcoming demeanor.”
Johnson is a local, politically connected entrepreneur who in 2020 ran an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for the Oakland City Council. He later ran for mayor of the city. That same year, he told the news site Oaklandside he was no longer the owner of the restaurant, preferring the title “founder.” He said he lost it in bankruptcy proceedings and that several of his former employees owned the place.
However, today Johnson calls that old news and claims the title of owner. “It’s back in the family now,” he says.
Johnson is also a longtime friend of Vice President Kamala Harris, both from the old days of Oakland. The two call each other “cousins” despite not being blood-related. He was invited to go to the inauguration of Harris and Joe Biden in 2021.
Johnson honored Harris, who has been photographed inside the restaurant, in an interior mural and named a menu special for the former VP, telling KPIX: “It’s called ‘The Kamala’…. It’s collard greens, chicken lasagna, green salad and a choice of dessert and drink.”
He says he hasn’t told her about closing the restaurant. But he does attend Golden State Valkyries games with her sister, Maya Harris, “so I’m sure she knows.”
(As it so happens, Hillary Clinton is also connected to the restaurant. The former presidential candidate held a community meeting there about Oakland’s future in 2016, though no one reportedly ate any chicken or waffles.)
Home of Chicken & Waffles maintains average to slightly above-average reviews on Yelp and Google. The most recent reviews on each site, respectively, praise its servers and artwork and its willingness to make meals after closing time.
The restaurant’s departure is one of several for Oakland’s lately beleaguered Jack London district. The bowling venue Plank closed this summer, and other businesses to recently depart include the Asian-inspired brewery Dokkaebier, the Seawolf pub and the Waterfront Hotel. A couple of new businesses have taken some empty spots, though, including Reem’s California and Dave & Buster’s.
Johnson says he is working to find other jobs for his kitchen staff, some of whom have worked at the eatery since its opening day. As to his own plans, he hopes to “continue to uplift Oakland in my role — help find investments to uplift our city because that’s really what is needed.”
That possibly includes what comes in next at the empty Home of Chicken & Waffles space.
“We have customers from San Jose, Fremont, San Francisco. People from all over the Bay Area come here,” Johnson says. “I know it’s a loss to the community, but I’m sure there’s some young, new restaurateur dying to get into the business, and I’d be more than happy to help them out.”
Details: Open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily (except closed Wednesdays) at 247 Fourth St., Oakland, until permanently closing on Aug. 31, 2026; homeofchickenandwaffles.com.
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