Dave’s Hot Chicken Started With $900 in a Parking Lot. It Now Has 500 Restaurants.

The chain has eight openings in one day, deals across Europe and no sign of slowing down. By Jonathan Small | edited by Dan Bova | Oct 14, 2026 Dave’s Hot Chicken continues to bring the heat. The chain opened its 500th restaurant in Phoenix on October 8, according to Food & Beverage Magazine. Those are impressive numbers for a business three childhood friends launched in 2017 with $900, portable fryers and folding tables in an East Hollywood parking lot. Wetzel’s Pretzels co-founder Bill Phelps signed on to franchise the concept in 2019. In 2025, private equity firm Roark Capital, which also owns Subway, bought a majority stake at a valuation of about $1 billion. The pace hasn’t slowed. In April, Dave’s opened a record eight restaurants in a single day. The brand now operates in Canada, the Middle East and London, with a 180-restaurant deal covering 10 European countries and development rights sold for more than 1,592 locations worldwide. “We weren’t thinking about hundreds of restaurants,” co-founder Arman Oganesyan said. “We were focused on making the best hot chicken we could and getting people to try it.”