Local franchisees Ian and Adam Lieberman, the team behind FTB Services and various Fuzzy’s Taco Shops in the area, are set to open Tampa’s first Dave’s Hot Chicken at 2540 E Fowler Ave this April, with plans to expand throughout the region thereafter.
“We are insanely excited to bring Dave’s Hot Chicken to all of the Tampa Bay Area starting with our first store in Uptown – a market our group knows well from the success of our Fuzzy’s Taco Shop down the street in Temple Terrace,” Ian Lieberman tells What Now Tampa. “We chose Uptown for our flagship location primarily due to the diversity of customers that live and work in that area. We believe there is no better cross-section and representation of Tampa than in Uptown. Proximity to USF and other major employers like the VA Hospital is great, but above all, we love the access this location provides to all of the different types of people that make Tampa Bay our home.”
Dave’s Hot Chicken – which bills itself as Nashville-inspired – began in 2017 when “four friends scrounged up $900 to put a tiny stand in an East Hollywood parking lot,” according to the company’s website. Shortly thereafter, “Eater/LA showed up to see what the fuss was about, [and] the next morning’s headline read ‘East Hollywood’s Late Night Chicken Stand Might Blow Your Mind’.”
In the six years since, Dave’s Hot Chicken has assembled a roster of A-list celebrity investors including Drake, Samuel L. Jackson, and Maria Shriver with outposts across the US, Canada, and Dubai. What’s more, the company has grown from seven stores at the start of 2021 to a whopping 721 stores that are committed and another 107 that are open – earning it the title of Breakout Brand of 2022 from industry media outlet, QSR Magazine.
