I ate at the fastest-growing restaurant chain in US — the celebrity-backed Dave's Hot Chicken — and saw why it could be unstoppable

In 2022, Dave's Hot Chicken was named the fastest growing chain in the US.

The Nashville-style hot chicken chain began its fast ascent in 2021. It started the year with seven locations.

The chain finished 2021 with 40 stores. Sales grew by 262% to $79.6 million. In 2022, the fast-casual brand opened 62 restaurants, including its first location in Manhattan.

Source: Technomic

The concept was founded in 2017 by stand-up comedian Arman Oganesyan, Dave Kopushyan and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan. The first location was a pop-up restaurant set up in a parking lot in East Hollywood, California.

The founders loved fried chicken, so they decided on a Nashville-style hot chicken concept. Dave Kopushyan, who previously worked as a sous chef at celebrity chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon, developed the recipes.

Dave's Hot Chicken keeps its menu simple. It sells chicken tenders with soft white bread, or in a slider. Sides include fries, cheese fries, macaroni and cheese, kale slaw, sodas, and milkshakes.

The chain offers seven heat options - no spice, lite mild, mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and Reaper. Medium is the most popular choice.

The hottest level is made with the Carolina Reaper pepper, which is the hottest pepper in the world. On the Scoville scale, the Reaper average is 1,641,183 heat units.

Source: Guinness World Records

I visited a Dave's Hot Chicken in Anaheim, California. The Los Angeles Angels and Anaheim Ducks play nearby. My intention was to try all spice levels...

...but, I chickened out on the palate-scorching Reaper after learning I'd have to sign a "eat at your own risk" liability waiver. "Yes, it's that hot" and could cause harm or "even death," the waiver states.

Still, Americans are obsessing over spicy hot fried chicken. Between 2019 and 2022, there's been a 52% increase in searches for hot chicken on Yelp.

Source: Yelp

According to DoorDash, there are an estimated 2,900 brands on its app selling Nashville hot chicken or fried spicy chicken items on menus across 28,200 stores in the US.

Dave's Hot Chicken went from a local hangout to a destination phenomenon in May 2017 after a rave review by popular Eater blog editor Farley Elliott. The headline: "East Hollywood's Late Night Hot Chicken Stand Might Blow Your Mind."

In 2018, the founders opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Los Angeles.

Veteran restaurateur Bill Phelps, the co-founder of Wetzel's Pretzels, discovered the chain in 2018. Phelps invested and became the CEO that same year.

Phelps knows a thing or two about hot brands. He was an early investor in Blaze Pizza. The build-your-own pizza chain is backed by LeBron James and was one of the fastest-growing restaurants in the US in 2017.

Source: Nation's Restaurant News

Celebrity investors helped drive the early success of Dave's Hot Chicken. Backers include Michael Strahan, Samuel L. Jackson, Maria Shriver, Drake, and Boston Red Sox owner Tom Werner.

Los Angeles street artists Splatter Haus and Dehmq create the art at each restaurant. The restaurant's decor pays homage to the pop-up's graffiti surroundings.

Each location also pays tribute to the local community. In Anaheim, California, the chain's rubber chicken mascot "Dave" is shown as a Los Angeles Angels baseball player and a Ducks hockey player.

The Anaheim restaurant promotes its late-night hours with a neon sign. Select locations sell beer, wine, and hard seltzers.

Ordering at Dave's is easy, especially if you want to try different spice levels. The two-item combo allows you to pick two heat options. I sampled in ascending order, starting with no spice, lite mild, mild, and medium.

The no-spice tender looks like a jumbo version of a Raising Cane's tender, which I previously considered big and juicy...

...so I decided to compare the two. There was no comparison. Dave's tenders are much bigger and juicer than the strips at Raising Cane's, shown right.

Dave's Hot Chicken comes with its proprietary dipping sauce. It is tangy and tasty, but not as addictive as the sauce at Raising Cane's.

As you go up in spice levels, the breading's red hues grow deeper. The cashier told me she can "smell" the heat levels as each meal is served.

I like spice, but not the kind that destroys my palate. I found I could handle the medium heat. One bite of the hot and extra hot tenders was enough for me. The no-spice and lite mild versions are a safe bet for children or those leery of too much heat.

I passed on the Reaper, but I met a heat-loving foodie named Adam Cali, left, during my visit. He and his friend Marcus Vega both work at Angel Stadium, across the street from Dave's. Cali previously tried the Reaper.

Cali is among over 100,000 risk-takers who have signed the Reaper waiver. He told me it caused him to consume "lots" of water over 15-20 minutes. Once was enough. His go-to heat levels are now medium and hot.

Dave's labels the spice levels so there's no mistaking what you are biting into. Meals are made to order. The average check is $21.

Make sure you dip the tender in either Dave's sauce or honey. Dave's provides extra packets of honey or sauce for free.

The single tender cost $4.69. It comes with a slice of soft white bread, a traditional presentation at hot chicken joints in Nashville.

I tried the chocolate shake, which was not very chocolatey. But the ice-cold shake does acts as a nice palate cleanser as you move up in spice levels.

I'm a big fan of crinkle-cut fries, but these were a bit soggy. I like my fries to be super crispy. The thick-cut dill pickles, on the other hand, were crunchy and tangy.

The sides at Dave's are underwhelming but I'm not a big fan of macaroni and cheese and kale slaw. The slaw works best with the slider, and the very cheesy mac dish is a solid choice for children.

I did enjoy the cheese-slathered fries. Make sure you drizzle the fries in Dave's sauce.

Overall, I preferred the sliders over the tenders. For spice-leery hot chicken novices, I would recommend ordering the lite mild or mild.

The soft spongy potato buns layered with the spicy tender, crinkle-cut pickles, slaw, and Dave's sauce provide a more complex bite.

I loved the restaurant's head-spinning artwork because it tells a story about the brand. This wall, shown, explains how the cofounders cobbled together $900 for the East Hollywood pop-up, which paid for tables and fryers.

The first pop-up made $40 on opening day. Today, the average Dave's Hot Chicken restaurant generates about $3.4 million in annual sales. By comparison, McDonald's restaurants average $4 million in annual sales.

Source: Technomic and Insider

This year, Dave's Hot Chicken is on track to open 70 to 75 locations in major markets in the US and Canada, including Washington, DC, Toronto, Brooklyn, Miami, Philadelphia, and Boston. The chain plans to add 700 restaurants over the next 10 years.

Overall, the jumbo tenders and the graffiti wall murals are the showstoppers at Dave's. The chain's made-to-order foods are prepared with high-quality ingredients. It reminds me of the early days of Shake Shack, one of the best better burger chains in the US. I expect Dave's to grow its fan base as it builds its hot fried chicken empire around the US.