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Seven years after leaving its original location in the Central District (and a few years after a brief revival on 21st Avenue), Jackson’s Catfish Corner is readying a return to the neighborhood. Owner Terrell Jackson tells Eater Seattle the restaurant — long beloved for its fried catfish, hushpuppies, and famed tangy pink tartar sauce — aims to open its new location at 2212 S. Jackson Street in the Community House Mental Health Agency’s Patricia K Apartments development on Juneteenth. Capitol Hill Seattle first reported the news.
This will mark a triumphant (second) Central District return for the business, which was born at the corner of Cherry Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in 1985. Founders Woodrow and Rosemary Jackson closed that outpost in 2014, but their grandson, Terrell quickly took up the mantle, first via a series of pop-ups and then at a couple of different fixed locations around Seattle, including a brief stint on 21st Avenue and Yesler Way in 2016. (There’s currently a Catfish Corner Express in Skyway no longer associated with the Jackson family, who sold that restaurant to new owners).
When the Yesler outpost of Jackson’s Catfish Corner closed in 2018, Jackson had teased that a new location in the neighborhood was imminent, and in June 2020, he posted a video on YouTube about the project in its early development at Patricia K Apartments, a building that provides affordable housing to those dealing with chronic mental illness.
He says the menu will remain much the same as before, with a few new additions, including hot wings, plus some beer and wine. Jackson plans to offer dine-in service at the 4,500 square-foot space, in addition to takeout and delivery options, and he hopes people will see the restaurant as a regular gathering place for the community, where “we already know what your order is from so many return visits.”
