The fryers are heating up at 1700 S. College Ave. as a new hot chicken spot readies to join the fray in Fort Collins.
Dave’s Hot Chicken will open Friday, bringing new life to the recently renovated business strip at the entrance of Midtown.
What is Dave’s Hot Chicken?
The chain, which started as a pop-up in a Los Angeles parking lot in 2017 and has since grown to more than 100 locations across the country, boasts a simple menu of fried hot chicken tenders and sliders with various heat levels, fries, kale slaw, mac and cheese and milkshakes. The Fort Collins location also has a bar, serving up beer and a trio of frozen cocktails.
It will be open 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 10:30 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.
The opening marks the first Dave’s Hot Chicken location in Fort Collins and the third total for Fort Collins franchisee Jason Beld. Beld — who previously served as the director of dozens of regional Pizza Huts and, more recently, as an investor in Fuzzy’s Taco Shop — has a franchise agreement to open a total of 14 Dave’s Hot Chicken locations spanning from Castle Rock to Northern Colorado.
Beld’s two existing Colorado locations are on South Broadway and Platte Street in Denver.
After In-N-Out courtship, College Avenue spot undergoes hot chicken transformation
The building housing Dave’s Hot Chicken’s Fort Collins location has undergone the largest transformation yet. The formerly unassuming South College Avenue building was once home to a Wok & Roll drive-thru and various other businesses.
In 2019, In-N-Out eyed 1700 S. College Ave. as the potential future home of the burger chain’s first Northern Colorado location. Those plans were abandoned by 2020 and In-N-Out later turned its sights to Loveland, where it purchased the former Mimi’s Cafe building at 1450 Fall River Drive in February.
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Beld later took over 1700 S. College Ave. and overhauled it into a two-tenant space with a fully renovated interior, new façade and parking lot.
The revamped interior of Dave’s Hot Chicken is marked by colorful lighting, graffiti-art-lined walls, a large bar and a colorful, whirring trio of frozen cocktail machines.
While the chicken restaurant will open in the building’s northern half Friday, Southern cafe chain Newk’s Eatery is hot on its heels with plans to open Oct. 2.
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