Restaurants

David Chang’s Fuku has shuttered — but there are plans for it to return in another form

The fried chicken joint might become a delivery-only venture.

The spicy fried chicken sandwich at Fuku. Fuku

November 13, 2020

Related Links

Boston.com readers share their memories of now-closed restaurants
Here are the Boston-area restaurants that have permanently closed amid the coronavirus pandemic

After a two-year stint in the Seaport, celebrity chef David Chang’s fried chicken joint, Fuku, has closed. But the fast-casual chain, which is part of Chang’s Momofuku Restaurant Group, might make a comeback in 2021 — albeit in a very different form.

Fuku shared an Instagram post on Friday alerting fans of the recent closure.

“As many in the restaurant industry have had to do, our Fuku Boston Seaport location and Wall Street location in NYC will not reopen,” the post read. “We’re going to miss you Boston, but we hope to be back in a different capacity in 2021. Stay safe and we’ll see you soon.”

In a press release from the company, Fuku CEO Alex Munoz-Suarez expanded on the chain’s future plans.

“While our Boston Seaport location will not reopen, our plan is to bring Fuku back to the Boston market via a REEF Neighborhood Kitchen in 2021,” Munoz-Suarez stated in the release. “For the past two years, we’ve been part of the Boston community and our goal is to return soon so that we can continue to serve our many loyal customers via a delivery model.”

REEF Neighborhood Kitchen is a national network of food concepts that allows restaurants to function as delivery-only ventures while fulfilling online orders at REEF kitchens. Fuku first partnered with REEF in Portland, Ore., and is now operating Neighborhood Kitchens in New York City, the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, and the Arlington/D.C. area, with orders processed through Uber Eats.

When it opened in 2018, Fuku’s Seaport location served a medley of fried chicken sandwiches, wings, mac salad, and slushies from a colorful brick-and-mortar. If it returns in 2021 with a REEF Neighborhood Kitchen partnership, it will be among a growing number of ghost kitchens — delivery- or takeout-only concepts that are also known as virtual kitchens or cloud kitchens — that are popping up across the country.