Dave's Hot Chicken

Dave’s Hot Chicken is a national Nashville-hot-chicken chain — fried-to-order tenders and sliders served across seven heat levels from “No Spice” to the waiver-required “Reaper.” The chicken is halal certified. The brand entered the Kansas City metro in the mid-2020s and now operates at least three area locations: Westport (KCMO), Overland Park, and Lee’s Summit. This is the national-competitor signal documented honestly — it is not KC-rooted.

Tier classification

Tier 3. Dave’s Hot Chicken is a national franchise chain founded in Los Angeles, now owned by private-equity firm Roark Capital following a ~$1 billion acquisition in June 2025. It has no Kansas City roots — the founders and parent company are external, and the brand entered the KC metro as part of nationwide franchise expansion. Per KS.City tier doctrine, national chains and franchise/parent-owned operations classify as Tier 3, with the franchise/parent relationship disclosed honestly. Dave’s is included in the Registry not as a heritage business but as the documented “national competitor entered KC” signal for the Nashville-hot-chicken field — the entry exists to map the field accurately, not to celebrate local roots.

Ownership & history

Dave’s Hot Chicken began in May 2017 as a pop-up in an East Hollywood (“Little Armenia”) parking lot in Los Angeles, founded by four Armenian-American friends — Dave Kopushyan (a chef), Arman Oganesyan, and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan — who pooled roughly $900 in savings. They made $40 their first night. Word-of-mouth and an early write-up by then-Eater LA critic Farley Elliott drove rapid growth, and the company moved into brick-and-mortar and then franchising. Celebrity investors have included Drake, Samuel L. Jackson, Maria Shriver, Michael Strahan and Tom Werner. In June 2025, Roark Capital acquired a majority stake in a deal valued at approximately $1 billion.

The chain reached the Kansas City metro in the mid-2020s. The Overland Park location at 9097 Metcalf Ave (Promontory Shopping Center) and the Westport location at 4121 Broadway Blvd were among the area openings; a Lee’s Summit location at 1808 NW Chipman Rd followed. All three were confirmed active via current listings as of mid-2026. The specific KC-metro franchisee/operator identity is not yet confirmed.

Menu

Last verified: 2026-06-23 · Source: Dave’s Hot Chicken official menu & store-order pages (structure) + delivery-aggregator/search listings (representative prices) · Confidence: Structure High (official); prices unverified — the official site lists no prices, prices vary by location and franchisee, and KC-metro location pricing could not be directly confirmed. Treat all dollar figures below as approximate national/representative ranges, not confirmed KC-metro prices.

Dave’s keeps the menu deliberately small: the entire build is hand-breaded chicken — full-sized tenders or sliders — ordered at one of seven heat levels, sold à la carte or in a numbered combo.

The heat ladder (no upcharge between levels)

Ordered mildest → hottest: No Spice → Lite Mild → Mild → Medium → Hot → Extra Hot → Reaper. The top level, Reaper, is built on Carolina Reaper peppers and requires customers to sign a waiver before ordering.¹²

Combos (the “Dave’s #” system)

• Dave’s #1 — 2 sliders, fries, drink, and a side of Dave’s signature sauce.¹
• Dave’s #2 — 2 sliders, fries, drink, sauce (the most-ordered combo).¹
• Dave’s #3 — 1 slider, fries, drink, sauce.¹
• Dave’s #4 — 2 tenders, fries, drink, sauce.¹

(Note: across sources the combo numbering varies slightly by tender vs. slider count; all four are two-piece chicken + fries + drink + sauce builds. exact KC-metro combo contents/numbering.)

À la carte chicken

• Tenders — hand-breaded, larger-than-average; sold by the piece. Single tender ≈ $4.50–$4.99 (unverified, representative).¹²
• Sliders — chicken on a soft potato bun with pickles, kale slaw, and Dave’s signature sauce; sold singly.¹
• Dave’s Bites — bite-sized tender pieces, for smaller appetites.²

Sides

• Fries (crinkle-cut)¹
• Cheese Fries — fries topped with cheese sauce ≈ $4.99–$5.99 (unverified).¹²
• Mac & Cheese ≈ $3.99–$4.49 (unverified).¹²
• Kale Slaw — the house slaw, also used on the sliders.¹
• Cheese sauce — available as a dipping side / cheese-fries base.¹

Shakes & drinks

• Shakes (small / regular) in Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry; Top-Loaded Shakes offered at some locations ≈ $5.49–$6.49 (unverified).¹²
• Soft drinks (small / regular), bottled water, bottled drinks; slushers offered at some locations.¹

Prices above are representative national figures from delivery-aggregator and menu-listing sources and are NOT confirmed for the Westport, Overland Park, or Lee’s Summit locations; the official site publishes no prices. Menu items and the heat ladder are confirmed via official Dave’s Hot Chicken pages.

Sources

• Dave’s Hot Chicken — Overland Park, KS (Metcalf Ave) official location page
• Dave’s Hot Chicken — Kansas City, MO (Broadway Blvd/Westport) order page
• Dave’s Hot Chicken — Lee’s Summit, MO (NW Chipman Rd) order page
• Westport KCMO business directory — Dave’s Hot Chicken
• Fox4KC — “Dave’s Hot Chicken officially opens in Overland Park”
• KSHB — “Dave’s Hot Chicken to serve up the heat in Kansas City area; Overland Park location to open next week”
• Yelp — Dave’s Hot Chicken, Overland Park (updated June 2026)
• Yelp — Dave’s Hot Chicken, Kansas City/Westport (updated May 2026)
• Wikipedia — Dave’s Hot Chicken (founding, ownership, Roark acquisition)
• CNBC — “Dave’s Hot Chicken started with just $900—it’s now worth around $1B” (June 2025)
• Status verified active 2026-06-23 via Yelp — Dave’s Hot Chicken, Kansas City/Westport (updated May 2026) and Dave’s Hot Chicken — Westport official location page (accessed 2026-06-23).

Footnotes

1. Dave’s Hot Chicken — official menu & store-order pages — https://daveshotchicken.com/menu/ and https://store.daveshotchicken.com/menu/ — Asserts: seven heat levels (No Spice → Lite Mild → Mild → Medium → Hot → Extra Hot → Reaper); numbered combos (Dave’s #1–#4 of tenders/sliders + fries + drink + sauce); single tender and single slider; sliders built on potato bun with pickles, kale slaw, signature sauce; sides (fries, cheese fries, mac & cheese, kale slaw); shakes (chocolate/vanilla/strawberry, small/regular) and top-loaded shakes; soft drinks/bottled drinks. Official site publishes no prices. Verified 2026-06-23. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴

2. Dave’s Hot Chicken — Overland Park, KS (Metcalf Ave) order landing page + national menu-listing/delivery-aggregator search results — https://restaurants.daveshotchicken.com/ks/overland-park/best-hot-chicken-sandwich-on-metcalf-ave/; representative price ranges via DoorDash/Uber Eats and menu-listing aggregators (e.g., https://usafoodjournal.com/daves-hot-chicken-menu-prices, https://www.doordash.com/store/daves-hot-chicken-overland-park-25657120/) — Asserts: Reaper heat requires a signed waiver; Dave’s Bites; tenders are full-sized/hand-breaded; representative (unverified) price ranges — single tender ~$4.50–$4.99, cheese fries ~$4.99–$5.99, mac & cheese ~$3.99–$4.49, shakes ~$5.49–$6.49. Aggregator pages returned access blocks on direct fetch; prices captured from search-result excerpts and are not confirmed for KC-metro locations. Accessed 2026-06-23. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶