A restaurant four years in the making, COQODAQ arrives via restaurateur Simon Kim, owner of the Michelin-starred COTE Korean Steakhouse in New York and Miami; the brand new high-end fried chicken concept located in the Big Apple’s Flatiron district, and already causing a stir.
An experience not be missed, COQODAQ is helmed by executive chef Seung Kyu Kim, and is a “modern cathedral for all things fried chicken,” the menu starting with appetisers such as ‘The Golden Nugget’, or ‘Doenjang Chicken Liver Pâté’, before moving on to The Bucket List: the chef’s ‘Signature Fried Chicken Feast.’
Designed by Rockwell Group, who were inspired by Simon Kim’s idea of a place to worship the humble bird, COQODAQ (an onomatopoeia for “cock-a-doodle-doo” in Korean), is a grandiose space that fuses Korean and American influences with art nouveau touches. The material palette stars hunter green leather, dark walnut wood, architectural lighting, champagne glass, soapstone, bronze, and glowing lacquered panelling; all coming together in a theatrical aesthetic that is a million miles from your typical fried chicken shop.
The dark and intimate dining room features a bar and custom Hollywood banquettes, while the runway-like circulation is rhythmically marked by a series of ‘ghost’ arches made of lit cast glass and bronze metal connections. Theatre lights create additional drama, a mirrored wall at the end of the room creates an infinity effect, and a horizontal band of black-tinted mirrors and integrated lighting frame the back of both rows of banquettes, creating a datum line and further reflecting the activity of the restaurant.
Upon entering the COQODAQ, diners are greeted by a handwash station in green soapstone with a leathered finish and bronze Italian fixtures. Here, guests are invited to wash themselves with exfoliating Hermès hand soap before eating. An inset concrete ‘carpet’ below further delineates the space, creating a moment of transition from the streets of New York and preparing diners who are about to embark on a sensory dining experience.
In keeping with the luxury theme, alongside fried chicken, guests can splash out on seafood platters, $800 tins of caviar, chicken nuggets topped with trout roe, and a list of 400 champagnes making a dinner at COQODAQ anything from $50 for the set meal, to in excess $1,500 if you opt for the chicken, caviar, and bubbles option. A ‘cathedral’ in every sense.
New York’s cool crowd, big ballers, and fried chuck obsessives are already descending upon COQODAQ to make their devotions known; if you like it finger-licking good, then join them for service.
Photography, Jason Varney for Rockwell Group / courtesy COQODAQ New York.
