The Hottest New Fast Food Chain is Coming to South Jersey

In six short years, a humble fried chicken business started by four friends has gone from being a parking lot pop-up pipe dream to the most talked about fast food chain in the country. And it will soon open its first South Jersey location.

Dave's Hot Chicken Opening a South Jersey Location

The announcement that Dave Hot Chicken, the super popular California-based fried chicken chain was coming to the Ellisburg Shopping Center, at the intersection of Route 70 and Kings Highway in Cherry Hill was made back in the fall, but the site has just begun to show signs of opening soon.

There is still no grand opening date, though.

What is Dave's Hot Chicken?

The beauty of it is how simple Dave's menu is. It mostly consists of chicken tenders, sliders, or a combination of the two.

The tenders are served on white bread, while sliders are served on buns with pickles, house-made "kale slaw" and a chipotle mayo sauce they call Dave's Sauce.

But...the tenders are huge. Take a look at that cover photo. That's real. That's not a joke.

Dave's fanatics say they also sell a good milkshake and a few side dishes, but the panic is over the "Nashville-style hot chicken" tenders and sliders.

The Spice is the Secret

Dave's Hot Chicken comes with 7 different spice levels: no spice, lite mild, mild, medium, hot, extra hot, and reaper. Yes, REAPER!

Those who dare try the palate-scorching Reaper must sign a waiver. About 100,000 risk-takers have signed the chain's waiver.

How Did The Frenzy Over Dave's Hot Chicken Start

How does a start-up food business go from nothing to OMG as quickly as Dave's Hot Chicken? It helps when you have early investment interests from people like Drake, Michael Strahan, Maria Shriver, and Samuel L. Jackson.

This place honestly opened with a portable chicken fryer in an Eat Hollywood parking lot in 2017 and now they have 700 locations nationwide and expect to open 70 new stores in 2024.