QSR January 2023

BREAKOUT BRAND OF THE YEAR

FROM LOCAL HOTSPOT TO FRANCHISE ROCKETSHIP, DAVE’S HOT CHICKEN HAS AMPLE RUNWAY AHEAD. 

A HeAt wavE IS ComiNg Dave’s Hot Chicken might just be one of the fastest-growing franchises in restaurant history. When Dave’s Hot Chicken COO and president Jim Bitticks joined the company, he admittedly knew little about the chain’s humble upbringing. So, like anyone with a cell phone or computer these days, he Youtube’d it. Bitticks found a video from 2017 of two men trying Dave’s Hot Chicken for the first time at the concept’s parking lot pop-up, founded by Arman Oganesyan, Dave Kopushyan, and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan. “When they bite into the food, I’m not even kidding, one of the guys’ eyes rolled back in his head and he’s like, ‘Oh!’ And there’s all sorts of expletives, and ‘They’re like, oh sh**, that’s so good,’” Bitticks says. “How do we operationalize that? How do we oper ationalize that ‘rolling in the back of your head’ moment? That’s been the challenge. But I think that’s been our focus. From the very beginning, it’s about the food. Nobody gives a crap about this, that, or the other thing. They care about the food.’” / B Y B E N C O L E Y

www.qsrmagazine.com | QSR | JANUARY 2023

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