Dave’s Hot Chicken sold to Subway owner in a $1 billion deal
By Dee-ann Durbin
The loo for Dave's Hot Chicken restaurant is seen in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles Monday, June 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Dave’s Hot Chicken said Monday it has been acquired by the private equity firm Roark Capital in a deal valued at $1 billion.
Dave’s Hot Chicken got its start in 2017 as a popup in a Los Angeles parking lot. It has grown exponentially since then and expects to end this year with 400 restaurants worldwide. The brand specializes in Nashville-style hot chicken.
Investors in Dave’s Hot Chicken have included the rapper Drake, who gives away hot chicken sliders every year on Oct. 24, his birthday.
Atlanta-based Roark specializes in franchised businesses. It bought the Subway sandwich chain in 2023 and backs two holding companies that own multiple restaurant chains: Inspire Brands, the parent of Arby’s, Dunkin’, Jimmy John’s, Sonic and Buffalo Wild Wings; and GoTo Foods, which owns Auntie Anne’s, Carvel, Cinnabon and Jamba.
Dave’s Hot Chicken said its leadership team — including CEO Bill Phelps and the four childhood friends who founded the company — will remain and continue to lead menu innovation, food quality, operations and marketing.
“Our entire organization is excited about the fit between Dave’s Hot Chicken and Roark, and we’re looking forward to continuing to blow our guests’ minds and unlocking growth and value for our franchise partners,” Phelps said in a statement.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
President Donald Trump has fired one of two Democratic members of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to break a 2-2 tie ahead of the board considering the largest railroad merger ever proposed.
Ford is recalling more than 355,000 of its pickup trucks across the U.S. because of an instrument panel display failure that’s resulted in critical information, like warning lights and vehicle speed, not showing up on the dashboard.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
