There is a hot chicken chain where the top heat level is so brutal you have to sign an actual waiver before they will hand it over.
That chain is Dave’s Hot Chicken, and it just soft opened its first Vancouver location at 901 Granville Street on June 18, taking over the old Cinema Public House across from Popeyes.
Their team invited us in for an early look ahead of the June 18 opening, so we walked in as complete first-timers.
If you have not been tracking the hype, Dave’s started in 2017 as a parking lot pop-up in East Hollywood, where three friends in their 20s scraped together $900 for a portable fryer and a couple of folding tables.
That folding-table stand is now a Nashville-style hot chicken machine with more than 300 locations in the US and 300-plus more around the world, which is honestly WILD.
The investor list does not hurt either, with Drake, Usher, and Samuel L. Jackson all backing the brand.
Drake bought in back in 2021, and this is the same chain he gives away free sliders for every year on his October 24 birthday.
We asked the staff what a first-timer should order, and they sent us straight to the Dave’s #3, which is one tender, one slider, and crinkle-cut fries for $20.99.
The heat ladder climbs from Not Hot up through Lite Mild, Mild, Medium, Hot, and Extra Hot before it tops out at Reaper, the one you literally sign a waiver for.
Since we are weak with spice, we took the staff’s advice and went Lite Mild on the slider and Mild on the tender, with a slice of cheese added to each the way they suggested.
Even for us, both ran tame, more of a low background warmth than any real burn, fading out before the next bite with zero sweat.
Next time we are climbing to Medium or Hot, because Mild BARELY registered.
What actually won us over was the chicken, moist and not dry, the meat pulling apart in juicy strands under a craggy, crackly fried shell.
For a drink we grabbed the Oreo shake, thick enough to fight the straw and piled with crushed Oreo on top, sweet enough to stand in as dessert on its own.
The room is bigger than I expected, a wide space with ample seating, red metal chairs, and walls painted end to end in loud, colourful murals.
Dave’s Hot Chicken joins a busy run of recent Vancouver openings, including Emeri Matcha, Alfa Tea Robson, and No Ne Kitchen and Bar.
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Address: 901 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC