Forthcoming NW 23rd Chicken Shack ChkChk Pledges Charitable Mission

A lot of things have been born from a love of fried chicken, even philanthropy. When it opens at 1305 NW 23rd Ave. in early 2016, ChkChk will be the fourth restaurant in the Aaron and Jessica Grimmer mini empire—joining The Picnic House, Barlow, and the recently opened High Noon. ChkChk will be all about guilty-pleasure fried chicken and fried chickpea sandwiches, only made the healthy way, with a handful of sauces for variety. It'll also give five cents of every dollar spent in the restaurant to local charities.

"We feel very lucky with the success of our businesses," Aaron told Eater. "We now feel we can give back to the community." But can a new business be successful while donating five percent of its gross sales—gross mind you; not after-tax profits? "We've noticed that when we give to the community we get tenfold back," says Jessica, and the Grimmers say they've already experienced goodwill toward the project from most sides, including from the restaurant's landlord and their bank.

Now the Grimmers have teamed up with the Portland Q Center, whose mission is to provide "a safe space to support and celebrate LGBTQ diversity, equity, visibility and community building." The Grimmers say they also intend to explore ways to give to other organizations, including those that help homeless youth.

At ChkChk, construction has kicked off, though you can still see signs of the former Subway, and the restaurant is aiming for a late January opening. The fast-casual restaurant will offer counter service (aka the biggest dining trend in Portland since the pop-up), and the design details dropped by Aaron and Jessica are intriguing: scratch and sniff wallpaper and self-portraits by Andy Warhol, "the original selfie", according to Jessica.