“It’s going to be okay… it’s looking good.” Jerry “JJ” Jaksich sounds as positive as ever. He assesses the embryonic greenery outside his restaurant in Meiji Park. But he might as well have been talking about Baby J’s, his newly launched fried chicken operation in California.
It’s a major understatement: Baby J’s is already extremely popular. From the moment the doors opened in late April, directly opposite the curved, low-slung facade of the Olympic Stadium in Sendagaya, there was barely a gap in the line for Baby J’s.
And for a very good reason: Tokyo has never seen or tasted a fried chicken sandwich of comparable quality before. And that’s exactly what you’d expect from Jaksich, as an alumnus of Chez Panisse, the pioneering farm-to-table restaurant in Berkley, California.
