HOT CHICKEN TAKEOVER
BY AVERY TYLA PHOTOS BY MEG REES
While visiting Nashville in 2013, Joe DeLoss and his wife, Lisa DeLoss, experienced the city’s famous chicken culture. After falling in love with the taste, the couple became inspired to create their own company.
After multiple experiments trying to come up with a satisfactory recipe, they opened a pop-up chicken window in Old Towne East in Columbus. They first started out serving friends and family until they finally served their first group of strangers in a parking lot.
This sparked the mission of their company: giving opportunities to those who were in need of employment. Whether that meant they were previously incarcerated or were finding it challenging to obtain a job.
“No matter the circumstances—homelessness, previous incarceration, or other barriers to employment—HCT is focused on the future and is dedicated to offering team members meaningful benefits, such as financial stability, personal growth, and professional development,” according to the company’s website.
Eventually, the company grew and the couple was able to establish seven locations in the Columbus area and one location in Cleveland.
For its menu, the meat is listed first so consumers start with the main entree. Its meats consist of jumbo tenders, nuggets, thighs, drumsticks, wings—which can be ordered boneless—as well as sandwiches. The restaurant also includes gluten-free options, vegan nuggets, and a kids combo.
After the entree is selected, customers can pick the level of heat for their chicken: southern, mild, warm, hot, holy, and unholy. Mild is “Our most popular! Our medium spice,” Hot Chicken Takeover said.
Last is the side and drink options. The side selection is rather large, allowing consumers to have a variety of options to accompany their crisp chicken entree. The selection includes waffle fries coated in kosher salt, baked beans, and waffles, smothered in powdered sugar, along with Ma’s mac, Ma’s slaw, and lastly, the creamy chipotle slaw. To quench thirst, Ma’s sweet and Joe’s unsweet tea are sold as well as any fountain beverage. Coke products are available.
Aside from the restaurant’s sweet and spicy menu, Hot Chicken Takeover experienced inciting benefits last summer. In July, Cleveland Cavaliers star Darius Garland decided to invest in the company and received a seat on the board of directors.
“It has a variety of options on the menu, great food options of course,” Garland told the Nation’s Restaurant News in an interview. “Most importantly, it's very welcome, great employees—they always have a smile on their faces. They always welcome people in. It’s just heartfelt.”
His next step was helping Hot Chicken Takeover release new waffle fries that are at the “Unholy Heat” level. This was just one of the small benefits Garland pitched to the company as a way to launch their relationship. Phil Petrilli, founder and CEO of Hot Chicken Takeover parent company Untamed Brands explains that Garland will hopefully greatly affect the business because he will be able to influence trends.
“We recognize Darius has legions of fans that span lots of different demographics, so he's exposed to what people find to be exciting out there these days, what people are looking for,” he said. “He travels a lot for work, and so he gets to see a lot of places and get exposed to things that we may not be able to know about as restaurateurs.”
Petrilli also said that in future years, Hot Chicken Takeover's partnership with Garland will help expand the company by adding a location in the Cavaliers’ Rocket Mortgage Field House along with other locations throughout Cleveland.
