Hopscotch’s famed fried chicken comes to North Berkeley

Fried chicken that made a buzz in the East Bay before its restaurant shut down has resurfaced in North Berkeley.

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Hopscotch Chicken, from local restaurateur Kyle Itani, opened in late August serving both fried and rotisserie birds in the Epicurious Garden in North Berkeley. It’s the latest in the chef’s ever-changing deck of restaurants, with Itani Sushi located in the same food hall and Itani Ramen and a sushi pop-up in downtown Oakland.

Hopscotch was a former Itani operation in Oakland that closed in 2023. Among its Japanese-fusion fare was fried chicken, which became so successful that it was sold by the bucket. Itani outlined the intensive labor process that led to the crunchy-juicy final product for Eater San Francisco, way back in 2015:

“To achieve chicken nirvana