Will ChocoChicken Actually Come Back to Downtown?

It's been a strange year for ChocoChicken, the much anticipated chocolate fried chicken concept from AdVantage Restaurant Partners that had plenty of critical attention (not always positive) in the former CorkBar space in Downtown. Though a second outlet is supposedly headed to Santa Monica, the original spot signed off on December 23 promising to open again in 2015.

It seemed odd that the place wasn't going to take advantage of any of the potential holiday traffic. Some Twitter folks questioned why it wasn't open during prime Kings home games at Staples Center (the place seems great for sports fans). Well, it's January 2, 2015, the beginning of a prime weekend just after the holidays (a Laker game takes place tonight at Staples), and ChocoChicken isn't responding to Facebook messages or picking up the phone. There aren't any new announcements on their Facebook page that seems to indicate that things are ramping up again after a long closure.

Will the first iteration of ChocoChicken shutter before the second one even opens? Multiple Yelp report that the place was seldom ever busy, and was often completely empty during meal hours. Late last year, they streamlined the menu and took out a lot of the gimmicky items. Does anyone know what's happening with ChocoChicken?