It’s official. Hot Chicken Takeover, the once wildly popular Nashville hot chicken chain founded right here in Columbus, has closed its final location inside the North Market.
This marks the end of a restaurant that wasn’t just about food… It was about second chances, community, and building something that felt bigger than fried chicken.
The Beginning: A Noble Cause
When Hot Chicken Takeover first opened in 2014, it wasn’t just serving spicy fried chicken (although that was the draw). Founder Joe DeLoss built the company around a mission: hiring people who often struggled to find work because of past criminal convictions.
It wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. It was an actual movement. People rallied behind it, both for the food and the cause. At its peak, lines were out the door and “HCT” was the hottest name in the Columbus dining scene.
I was first introduced to it during a class at Ohio State in 2017 (BUSMHR 2292, shoutout to Ty Shepfer), and I was immediately hooked. Little did I know what was waiting for the brand a few years down the line…
Expansion, Then Acquisition
Here’s where the story turns. Like so many beloved local spots, success came with a catch. Hot Chicken Takeover started to expand — new locations, bigger footprints, more buzz. And then, like clockwork, private equity stepped in.
In 2021, the chain was acquired by Untamed Brands, and almost immediately, regulars started noticing the difference. Personally, I thought it was a placebo effect, and there was no way that the godly Hot Chicken Takeover that we all loved was actually cutting corners.
But I was wrong. My optimism led me astray yet again…
Portion sizes shrank. Quality slipped. The restaurant that once felt special suddenly felt like any other fast-casual chain trying to cut costs.
By 2024, Craveworthy Brands bought Untamed Brands and attempted to revive HCT. But by then, the damage was done. The brand had already lost the trust of many of the people who made it popular in the first place.
A Familiar Trend
The fall of Hot Chicken Takeover feels like part of a bigger, depressing pattern we’ve seen again and again:
- A local business starts small with tons of community support.
- They expand (yay!).
- Investment money comes in, ownership shifts, and decisions start to be made far away from the community that built the place.
- Quality and purpose decline, even while the brand name stays plastered on the sign.
The result? The very thing that made the place special is lost.
Why It Hurts More
As I mentioned in my earlier piece about the sudden Clintonville closure, Hot Chicken Takeover was personal for me. It wasn’t just another spot for spicy fried chicken — it was a restaurant that shaped a time in my life.
And now it’s gone. I wouldn’t say I’m in mourning (so, please, don’t send flowers), but I’m not happy about it!
It’s hard not to place some of the blame on the private equity firms that swoop in, buy up beloved brands, and then hollow them out. For Hot Chicken Takeover, what started as a noble cause with real potential fizzled into another cautionary tale.
The End of an Era
Maybe the bad press was too much to overcome. Maybe the brand just grew too far, too fast. Either way, Hot Chicken Takeover is officially gone from Columbus. And if you ask me, it deserved a much better ending.
Godspeed, HCT.
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