Chicken Koop confirms Downey restaurant opening later this year
DOWNEY — The LA County restaurant chain, The Chicken Koop, plans to open their fifth location, in Downey, later this year at 10000 Paramount Blvd.
Owners Misheal Leblanc and Jason Moreno opened their Whittier location in 2016 after getting married and leaving the real estate business.
“I grew up in Montreal. I’m French Canadian,” Leblanc said. “My husband is Mexican American. So our chicken is oven-roasted chicken with a fusion of sauces. We got a little bit of everything.”
Neither of the owners has a cooking background, but they created each dish from homemade recipes and experimented with different flavors.
“In Whittier, we’re always looking for lunches to go for a quick meal, and we’re always looking for chicken and there was nothing,” Leblanc said. “Eventually, an opportunity as far as the location presented to us if you were interested and we jumped in.”
Moreno said the opportunity to open a location in Downey presented itself, and the restaurant owners seized it.
They invited their friends and colleagues to visit their locations. Raul Cruz worked with them in real estate and visited their Whittier location when it opened.
“I gave them a courtesy visit and then I said, ‘Man, this is really good,’” Cruz said. “So then I brought it home and then my wife. Now we’re pretty big fans.”
Downey resident Rick Garcia frequented the Chicken Koop location in Whittier and said he was excited to learn a site would open in his area.
“My wife and I live right by the elementary school. It’s walking distance from our house,” Garcia said. “I haven’t had a bad experience with them. My family really enjoys their food.”
The Chicken Koop has a variety of options for healthy or not so healthy meals.
“If you want to eat healthy there, but if you don’t want to eat healthily, there are other options that are not healthy. So you can get Brussel sprouts in veggies, broccoli, and chicken,” Garcia said. “What I think I enjoy the most is the chicken and waffles.”
The new Chicken Koop restaurant will be located at 10000 Paramount Blvd. (Photo by Alex Dominguez)
Moreno said his favorite dish is “the Garlic Chicken Plate which is a garden chicken tossed in butter garlic over better white rice.”
Leblanc and Moreno took inspiration from other cultures they observed when they traveled and adapted what they saw to their meals.
“The Cuban Sampling is one of my favorite dishes,” Leblanc said. “It’s oven-roasted chicken with white rice, black beans and soup plantings which is delicious.”
After their location in Downey opens, the couple has ambitions to open a location in Orange County.
“We’re trying to grow the team to be able to streamline on those categories to ensure that the food quality doesn’t get lost and our customer service as well, which is one of the toughest areas as you expand to maintain,” Leblanc said.
Leblanc and Moreno hope to open the Chicken Koop in Downey by September, but no official date is set.