Since 1984, Catfish Corner has remained a soul food spot selling creole-spiced catfish, homemade tartar sauce, hush puppies, and sweet tea while the Central District changed around it. Unfortunately due to high rent and state taxes, Seattle’s Original Catfish Corner had to shut down permanently in 2014. But Terrell Jackson, grandchild of the founders Woodrow and Rosemary Jackson, did not want his grandparent’s legacy to die. After seeking out new plots to rebuild the business, Jackson bought the place where Catfish Corner is now in 2021, on Jackson Street and 23rd Avenue, calling it Jackson’s Catfish Corner. Jackson shared, “I heard a little kid one day say he’s never had Catfish Corner and it just blew my mind like it was like, how did you never have it? And it just motivated me to bring it back, you know, because you got to have Catfish Corner.” Jackson says, “I started working when I was 13 years old and I used to always see my grandparents, you know, get up and do this every day. So it motivated me to want to do this when the business shut down. So it was pretty much easy for me to just kick in gear to take over.”
Jackson explained that he “brought it back to the city because it’s where it belongs.” It’s where “Black people started off back in the day. The 1950s, 60s, 80s.” Jackson stated that “since [his] grandfather started the business, the whole community has changed. Everybody had moved out and [got] pushed out”. He shares that he still cherishes the community a lot and loves how he gets to “see new people every day and give back to the community.”
At Catfish Corner, Jackson has “a small team of 6 to 8 people that help [him] on a day-to-day basis.” Working every day from 5 AM to 10 PM, he takes care of his community, selling about 300 pounds of catfish a day. Jackson says that he is “not about cameras, not about showing off.” He strives to make sure that every customer is greeted and treated equally.
If you happen to have time on a Tuesday, you have to try Jackson’s favorite dish, which he reveals to be the “Cajun catfish that’s only on Tuesdays. It’s oven baked, it comes served over rice with sweet potato salad with some hushpuppy, it’s super good with a little spicy, buttery rub to it.”
Jackson hopes for Catfish Corner to be a place that “kids can use as a study hub like a library. We have free Wi-Fi, you guys can come here. I don’t mind giving kids free iced tea and free french fries when you come in and study.” If you ever have a chance, you must go to Catfish Corner because “it’s the best catfish you will ever get, it’s the best catfish you will ever eat,” the owner himself exclaimed. Only a couple blocks from Garfield, Catfish Corner is located right across from Amazon Fresh and Seattle Fish Guys. Not only should you show up to Catfish Corner because it’s close by, but when “you come in as a customer, you leave as family.”
Graphic by Kelan Sato
