Nashville Hot Chicken seems to be having a moment.
Dave’s Hot Chicken, the leading franchise spreading the Southern hot chicken gospel, has been growing steadily. The chain has over 300 U.S. locations, has sold rights to more than 1,000 franchises, and plans to add 150 domestic locations in 2025.
The chain’s founders also recently sold a 75% stake in Dave’s Hot Chicken to Roark Capital for $1 billion in 2024.
“The company projects 2025 system-wide sales to reach $1.2 billion. This figure underpins the eight-times revenue multiple used in the $1 billion acquisition valuation,” Food Chain Magazine shared.
Dave’s is not the only player in the Nashville Hot Chicken space. Even KFC has offered its take on Nashville Hot Chicken, but has not made it a permanent menu item.
Nashville Hot Chicken in a broad sense has a lot of room for growth.
“Dave’s Hot Chicken took about 1.4% of overall quick-service chicken restaurant spend in CE’s US data over the past twelve months, up from just 0.1% share in 2020-21 – putting it just ahead of Church’s Chicken but still behind Bojangles and El Pollo Loco – indicating that ample runway remains for Roark to drive brand adoption in the years ahead,” Consumer Edge reported.
Despite the clear demand, not every Nashville Hot Chicken chain is guaranteed success, and a key Dave’s Hot Chicken rival recently closed all of its stores.
What is Nashville Hot Chicken?
Nashville hot chicken is a style of fried chicken from Nashville that’s known for being very spicy and red-hot.
Here’s what makes Nashville Hot Chicken distinct from other types of fried chicken:
- Chicken parts (thigh, breast, wings, etc.) are typically marinated (often in buttermilk) then dredged in flour and fried.
- After frying, the chicken is brushed or coated with a spicy paste or oil-based sauce, rich in cayenne pepper (sometimes mixed with lard, spices, and oil).
- It’s usually served on a slice of white bread with pickle chips. The bread soaks up the spicy drippings.
- The heat levels vary a lot from mild to extremely hot. Different joints do different spice blends.
Image source: Hot Chicken Takeover
Hot Chicken Takeover about more than chicken
Hot Chicken Takeover launched with two missions. The company explained those on its website:
In the fall of 2013, we experienced Nashville’s famous hot chicken culture for the first time. The taste, the smells, the mix of people in the restaurants – we were instantly hooked. When we returned, we experimented non-stop.
Night after night, we tested out new twists on our own hot chicken recipe. Soon we started serving friends of friends and then we finally served our first group of strangers (in a random parking lot, if you can believe it).
Just months after that trip, we opened up a small pop-up chicken window in Olde Towne East. Every weekend we’d sell until the chicken ran out. We also began fulfilling our vision to hire men and women in need of supportive employment.
The chicken part isn’t that unique, but the company’s mission when it comes to its employees made it stand out.
HCT provides supportive jobs to men and women who need a fair chance at work. No matter the circumstances — homelessness, previous incarceration, or other barrier to employment — HCT is focused on the future and is dedicated to offering team members meaningful benefits, such as financial stability, personal growth, and professional development.
That’s a noble dream that appears to have ended, as the chain has closed its sixth and final location.
More Restaurants:
- Chick-fil-A to open its first global restaurants in 2025
- Famous Japanese restaurant chain closes US restaurants
- Popular Italian restaurant chain files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Hot Chicken Takeover closes all locations
Craveworthy Brands, which also owns Shaq’s Big Chicken, Wing It On, Budlong Southern Chicken, and Hot Southern Chicken, as well as many other non-chicken brands, bought Hot Chicken Takeover in 2024.
That was announced in a press release.
Craveworthy Brands, the innovative fast casual restaurant platform company that is home to leading concepts such as BD’s Mongolian Grill, Dirty Dough, Flat Top Grill, Genghis Grill, Krafted Burger Bar + Tap, Lucky Cat Poke Co., Pastizza Pizza & Pasta, Scramblin’ Ed’s, Sigri Indian BBQ, Soom Soom Mediterranean, The Budlong Southern Chicken, and Wing It On!, has announced that it has completed the acquisition of Untamed Brands, the multi-brand operator and parent company of taim Mediterranean Kitchen and Hot Chicken Takeover.
Craveworthy no longer includes Hot Chicken Takeover on its website.
Hot Chicken Takeover location has closed all of its locations, officially shutting down its North Market restaurant, Rick Harrison Wolfe, CEO of North Market, told The Columbus Dispatch.
The chain, he said, owes significant back rent.
“It is particularly disappointing given the history we share. North Market was proud to be the very first brick-and-mortar home for Hot Chicken Takeover, and we celebrated their growth as a brand that started here,” he added.
Craveworthy did not return a request for comment from the newspaper.
Hot Chicken Takeover timeline:
- 2014: Founded in Columbus, OH, by Joe DeLoss as a pop-up; opens first stall at North Market.
- 2016: Expands across Columbus; gains attention for its fair-chance hiring model.
- 2019: Opens in Cleveland (first outside Columbus).
- 2021: Acquired by Untamed Brands.
- 2024: Untamed (and HCT) acquired by Craveworthy Brands, which considers merging HCT with its Budlong Southern Chicken concept.
- 2025: All Hot Chicken Takeover locations have closed, and Craveworthy Brands no longer lists the chain on its website.
Craveworthy CEO Gregg Majewski did tell 614Now in a May 2024 interview that changes needed to be made to the brand.
“There’s the potential that hot chicken is a fad, in the long term. We want it to stand the test of time,” he told the news channel.
Related: Beloved sandwich chain closes restaurants, bakeries
#Hot #chicken #fastfood #chain #fully #closes #Chapter #bankruptcy