Darnell Johnson

Darnell Johnson is a restauranteur with over 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry. He is also a real estate investor and developer, who specializes in both commercial and residential real estate. Over the last 4 decades, Mr. Johnson has developed properties in California, New York, Ohio and Illinois. Included in these projects, are over a dozen restaurants. From 1995 to 2007, Mr. Johnson served as CEO of Miracle Mile Funding, an escrow, real estate and development company in Beverly Hills, California, focused on residential loan servicing and property development. Mr. Johnson's company, BRZ Foods Inc., is the parent company of his Chicago restaurant brand, Chicago's Home of Chicken & Waffles, which was established in March 2008, with the opening of his first location in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood. He and his wife, Tonya Johnson, went on to open their second location in 2010, and their third location opened in Nashville, Tennessee, in the summer of 2024. In addition, Mr. Johnson is dedicated to a variety of social causes, with a primary focus on youth mentorship and development. He has served as a mentor to many and has deep roots in the Chicago community. Mr. Johnson graduated from Brooklyn College with a B.A. in business administration. He possesses a solid history of business success and has built operations from the ground up with strategic and scalable approaches. He is well-oriented to quickly identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities.