Dave’s Hot Chicken is a unique chain of American fast-casual restaurants specializing in Nashville-style hot chicken. Founded in 2017 with a single restaurant in Los Angeles, California, the chain will expand to over 100 locations in 4 countries by 2022. Dew Hot Chicken is headquartered in Pasadena, California.
Early history
The first Dew’s Hot Chicken restaurant was opened in May 2017 by Armenian-American childhood friends Dave Kopushin, Arman Ogneshian, Tommy Rubinian, and Gary Rubinan. He was impressed by In N Out Burger’s no-frills approach, as well as the growing demand for fried chicken in Los Angeles.
Capuchin – the chain’s namesake – was a professional and skilled chef trained by restaurateur Thomas Keller at the three-Michelin-star restaurant The French Laundry. Drawing on this experience, Koposhin developed the dish from the chain’s signature hot chicken recipe. The four friends put together $900 from somewhere to set up a small shop.
The original location was nothing more than a small street food stand with a portable fryer, a few picnic tables, and a limited menu, and it was located in A Parking lot in East Hollywood, Los Angeles Initially, the only thing the stand sold was a hot chicken combo plate:
The stand’s popularity skyrocketed after a feature on the food blog Eater Los Angeles, with lines that reportedly stretched the entire block at times.
Franchising and domestic expansion
In the fall of 2019, the founders struck a deal with an investment group that included former Wetzel’s Pretzels CEO and co-founder Bill Phelps, as well as film producer John Davis, to franchise the restaurant. Plans for over 300 locations in the United States and Canada. The deal named Phelps as China’s new CEO.
Within California
In winter 2019, the chain opened a second and third location in the North Hollywood and Koreatown neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
In late 2020 and early 2021, the chain expanded to Orange County with stores in Anaheim, Orange, Irvine, and Tustin, with plans to open 4 more in the county by the end of the year.
In 2021, the chain expanded to the Bay Area with stores in Santa Rosa and Union City and became quite popular. The following year the chain added stores in Oakland, Sunnyvale, and San Leandro.
Outside California
In 2021, the chain opened 30 new locations and expanded to Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas. In 2022, the chain expanded to Wisconsin, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, Kentucky, and New York and spread to Oklahoma, Arizona, Idaho, and New Jersey. store in Omaha; Also Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
International expansion
The chain’s first international location opened in January 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
In September 2022, Dew Hot Chicken opened its first location in the Middle East in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The chain has signed deals to open more stores in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.
In November 2022, Dew Hot Chicken opened its first Qatar location in Doha.
On July 20, 2023, The Chain arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Menu
The chain’s menu is simple, with just 4 choices of hot chicken tenders, sliders, or both. Tenders are served on white bread, while sliders are served on buns with pickles, house-made “banana slaw” and a chipotle mayo sauce called Dave Sauce. Customers are offered a choice of 7 different spice levels for their chicken, ranging from “no spice” to “wrapper” (which requires the customer to sign a waiver). Sides include french fries, cheese fries, macaroni and cheese, and “banana slaw.” All Dave’s Hot Chicken locations are Halal certified.
Notable investors
Dave Hot Chicken has several notable investors, including rapper and actor Drake, actor Samuel L. Jackson, former California first lady Maria Shriver, athlete and TV personality Michael Strahan, and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner.
