Joshua Liggins has a lot of observations from his opening months at Dave’s Hot Chicken. One being, if you stripped the buzz and just paid attention to how it operated, you’d think this was a brand clawing for survival. “The amount of things and stones that they’re turning over and the way and diligence they go about trying to improve,” he says. “If you didn’t know any better, you’d think, oh man, this is a brand that’s not at the top.”
In other terms, what’s sustaining and opening the gates for Dave’s, Liggins feels, is how it’s acting like it hasn’t made it yet.
“To be at the top and to have everybody working like that,” Liggins explains. “They’re going to be at the top for a long time.”
Liggins in January took on the role of VP of franchise development for Dave’s. He came over from Inspire Brands, where he served as director of franchising overseeing development for Dunkin’, Baskin-Robbins, and Sonic. So, a universe of roughly 15,600 locations.
Liggins was at Dunkin’, clocking time as a franchising development manager, for a month before the company joined Inspire in 2020. Previously, he helped grow Saladworks, QDOBA, and Quiznos stretching to 2018.
Further, Liggins was a middle school math teacher and played basketball professionally overseas, including in Saudi Arabia, Germany, and the Dominican Republic. He was an All-American guard at Cornerstone University in Detroit, averaging 13.6 points his final season in 2005–06.
What attracted him to Dave’s, in some ways, mirrors how he now chats with prospective operators. Simply, it was an easy case to make.
Dave’s in 2023 started the year with 92 restaurants. It expanded by a net of 71 that calendar and 75 in 2024. This past year, it tacked on 120—the company’s most yet—to reach 358 restaurants. The franchised side lifted by 115 and has scaled from 88 to 348 over that span. Dave’s added five corporate locations to lift to 10 company-run restaurants.
And the brand, per its recent FDD, projects 131 new franchised outlets (gross) in 2026, with 52 agreements signed without an outlet opened yet. There’s one corporate store on the docket, as well.
Massachusetts and New York (10 apiece) are expected to appreciate the biggest jump, while Florida (nine) and North Carolina (eight) follow.
More holistically, though, Dave’s, which originated in 2017 as a late-night pop-up stand in an East Hollywood parking lot, founded by a group of childhood friends with $900, has become “the crown jewel of QSR right now,” Liggins says.
“It’s the American story. It’s the American dream,” he says. “These young founders [Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan, and Tommy Rubenyan] put this brand together to provide more in common things for their family. And look at what it’s turned into.”
It went on to attract investments from celebrities like Drake, Michael Strahan, and Samuel L. Jackson. A couple of years after its takeoff, former Wetzel’s Pretzels and Blaze Pizza leader Bill Phelps came on as CEO as well to ignite franchising.
Dave’s went from seven to 40 restaurants in a year. At one point, it opened as many locations as it had across the entire footprint in a single day (being seven).
But the brand, with its $2 million Instagram and 5 million-plus TikTok followers, truly elevated into the growth lexicon last June when Inspire, Subway, and GoTo Foods owner Roark Capital took a majority investment at a $1 billion valuation. Roark kept Dave’s as a standalone vehicle versus integrating it into some of its multi-brand portfolios, like Inspire and GoTo Foods.
Then-COO Jim Bitticks succeeded Phelps as CEO in January (around when Liggins came on), with Phelps sliding to an executive chair position. Bitticks was president and COO (and a franchisee of the brand) for more than five years, right through its spurts, which has carried the brand nationwide as well as into the Middle East, Canada, and the U.K.
Liggins, like any QSR franchise development executive, was plenty familiar with the noise Dave’s generated. Getting to be a part of the culture and the next iteration of the brand story, he says, was a hard hook to pass up.
“I think the return on invested capital at Dave’s is best in class,” Liggins says. “For any franchisee, when they look at the numbers and the performance of Dave’s, they salivate.”
Dave’s doesn’t share an Item 19 in its FDD, but industry reports slot its AUV somewhere around $3 million per store.
The total investment to begin operation of a first Dave’s under an area development agreement to open three ranges $656,800–$4.162 million. That includes $81,680–$123,400 paid to the company.
For a freestanding restaurant, it’s $823,800–$4.122 million; $616,800–$2.623 million for an in-line or endcap; and $263,150–$688,500 for branded food trucks. The fee to the company is $41,680–$83,400 and $26,500–$27,000, respectively.
Typical Dave’s are 2,000–3,000 square feet. Non-trads are 1,000–1,800.
Liggins says Dave’s touts an age-old formula operators seek. The menu is on-trend, yet simple. There’s clear brand recognition. The concept isn’t complex to operate. And from a real estate and opportunity and available of growth perspective, even after the last few years, there’s plenty of room. He believes Dave’s could 4 or 5X within just the U.S.
And as has been the case since Phelps joined, the brand staffs leadership and resources like a much-larger enterprise.
CDO Carolyne Canady has been with the company since January 2021 and a franchisee herself since June 2020. She helped scaled Blaze from one to 350 locations over a seven-year tenure. Before, Canady held titles at Buffalo Wild Wings, CKE Restaurants, Rally’s (of Checkers and Rally’s), Sbarro, and Taco Bell during a career that dates back to the mid 1980s.
COO Juan Lopez came up through the company as well, starting as a VP of operations and training at Dave’s in fall 2020. He, too, spent seven years at Blaze and was with CKE prior.
SVP of real estate, Dannon Shiff, has been with Dave’s since March 2021 and boasts previous experience at sbe, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Noodles & Company.
CMO Brandon Rhoten, appointed to the spot in January, had the same title at GroundTruth, Potbelly, Papa Johns, and was VP of advertising, media, digital, and social media for Wendy’s.
SVP of construction and design, Tiffany Vassos, onboarded at Dave’s in June 2020, and, like others, was on the ground floor of Blaze’s growth in the early 2010s.
CFO James McGehee arrived in April 2019 and is a founding partner of Results Thru Strategy. He served in the same financial capacity at Ruby’s Diner from 1999–2002.
The larger picture for Dave’s is a straightforward one to understand. The chain acted like a fast-paced growth concept before it became one. That’s stabilized it through the process where, say, opening seven locations in a day didn’t feel foreign to those doing it. “That whole crew, genuinely kind, salt of the earth, want to do the best things that they can for you and your family kind of people,” Liggins says. “It is great. And then add to that, they’re brilliant at development and operations, which is obviously what matters for moving the needle.”
“The brand in of itself made me interested,” he adds. “But it’s the team that sold me.”
And getting into day-to-day, Liggins wasn’t unfamiliar with what he’d term a “tier 1 brand” having worked at Dunkin’, a chain with zero shortage of awareness and operator interest.
Liggins says it’s important to have someone in a role like his who sees development through a lens of discernment when it comes to making calls. Prospective candidates want to know who they’re working with.
In Dunkin’ and Dave’s case, he says, the franchisor has the perk of being selective and ensuring it’s linking up with the right parties.
Is it difficult convincing people to be a part of one of the hottest chains in QSR?
“No,” Liggins says. “I’m not having to convince many people. But what I am doing is, in one capacity, shepherding and continuing the growth that we’re already experiencing.”
So, remain cognizant of the long, cautionary roadmap. There are ample stories of concepts that shot up and then spent decades retracing. “Not having the right team in place can lend to those things happening,” Liggins says. “You have to have discernment from a growth strategy standpoint.”
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Another element of his role at Dave’s is figuring out what opportunities haven’t been tapped into. What verticals can the chain still target? “I think we’re a brand that wants to meet people where they’re at, and right now, you predominantly see us in the traditional landscape, your brick-and-mortar locations with your traditional franchisees,” Liggins says.
While that path remains Dave’s core focus, a coming frontier could be non-trad. Dave’s opened an airport location last July in Las Vegas. Liggins says the company is looking at airports, universities, military bases, malls, casinos. Pretty much any outlet where deploying a Dave’s would bring it closer to guests.
Liggins, of course, has witnessed plenty of that from his days at Inspire and, particularly, Dunkin’.
He’s cultivated growth through varied venues and wants, above all things, to make sure the return on invested capital always serves as Dave’s driver—regardless of venue.
And from a culture perch, Liggins is a high-energy executive who hopes to fit into Dave’s eclectic vibe. Bitticks, he says, is a leader who, as a franchisee himself, plugs into what matters and has a keen ability to keep operator needs at the forefront (it helps being one as well). So, when he does make changes, they hold a gravity that’s about as far removed from the ivory tower as you could get.
One example Liggins offers is Dave’s Top-Loaded Shakes introduced a couple of years ago. Instead of asking franchisees to invest in equipment to layer mix-ins, like Fruity Pebbles, into drinks, Bitticks suggested testing simply scooping them on top. It’s been one of Dave’s best-sellers since.
“He’s so sensitive to not just the top line, but how does it impact the store?” Liggins says. “How does it impact the simplicity of the operations? And not everyone thinks like that.”
Generally, a lot of the people inside Dave’s system are also franchisees. Liggins is plotting, potentially, jumping into that pool someday, too.
He believes it’s a less-publicized element of the brand’s performance. Decision makers have a lease on what happens at the store level. “When you actually own the shops and you’re responsible for when things go bad, you think differently,” Liggins says. “The franchisees gravitate to that and appreciate it.”
For Liggins in the coming months, the goal will be to ensure Dave’s stays the course and nothing gets in the way of franchisees opening the locations they’ve committed to. The brand has previously touted a four-digit pipeline.
He’s analyzing markets and impact and helping Dave’s circle the right trade areas and develop in a way that’s advantageous to invested capital for franchisees. Vassos, he adds as an example, despite rapid development, is still trying to balance layouts and counter macroeconomic pressures to protect the line.
Back to the opening point, Dave’s won’t sit idle.
“We’re continuously working to get better,” Liggins says, “and that’s what catapults development for franchisees.”
