Hot chicken restaurant makes its nest in Parkdale
Torontonians brave the winter temperatures for a spicy bite from this Californian venture
On a mural inside Dave’s Hot Chicken, the restaurant’s mascot, a bug-eyed rubber chicken, surveys the scene from his roost atop the CN Tower. The work is a tribute to the hip-hop artist Drake’s 2016 album, “Views.” It’s a bold statement for the restaurant, a California import, and maybe a suggestion that, like the rapper before him, Dave has ambitions to dominate the city.
If the hours long, physically distanced, lineups are anything to go by, he may be on his way to achieving that goal.
Nashville-style hot chicken is no stranger to Toronto’s spice heads. P.G. Clucks opened on College Street back in 2016 and now has a second location on Queen Street West. Five Points, the takeout spot inside Wasted Youth Bar on Bloor Street was another early adopter as was Chen Chen’s on Queens Quay West and Chica’s in the Junction. There’s even a uniquely Toronto variation: Tokyo Hot Fried Chicken, inside Folly Brewing on College Street, that combines Japanese Karaage fried chicken with Nashville spicing.
While those spots laid the groundwork, the arrival of Dave’s signals that Nashville hot chicken hotness is here to stay.
Dave’s Hot Chicken, at 1582 Queen St.
W., is the first in Canada and the first outside of California where there are seven, but it won’t be the last. Already, two more locations are scheduled to open in Toronto this year, one at Yonge and Eglinton and another in Leslieville.
Vancouver’s next and eventually there are expected to be at least 30 franchise locations in Canada and dozens more in the States. It is a quick expansion for a spot that was started in 2017 by classically trained chef Dave Kopushyan and three friends as a pop-up stand in a parking lot in West Hollywood.
“I wanted to find a place that reminded me a bit of L.A.,” said director of business development Blair Bitove of the decision to choose Parkdale for the first Dave’s location in Canada. “Somewhere that was a little bit trendier ... cool enough that people would want to seek it out. I didn’t want to go somewhere super central, like Yonge and Dundas, where we’d be just another chain in that location.”
Blair worked with her father John Bitove, whose brother
Jordan Bitove is the publisher of the Toronto Star and co-proprietor of Torstar, to bring the Dave’s Hot Chicken franchise to Toronto through John’s company Obelysk.
The menu at Dave’s is an exercise in minimalism. Six items, besides drinks, constitute the whole thing: house-made kale slaw, mac and cheese, crinkle fries, cheese fries and the main event, chicken tenders and sliders with heat levels ranging from “No Spice” to “Reaper.”
Maxing out the scale, the “Reaper,” a blend of jalapeño, habanero, Trinidad scorpion, ghost pepper and Carolina Reaper peppers, is so hot that anyone ordering it must sign a waiver that reads: “I acknowledge that eating the Reaper can cause me harm, including, but not limited to, bodily injury, property damage, emotional distress, or even death.”
I make a habit of not eating foods that might kill me in the short term, but I did want to find out how hot Dave’s Hot Chicken was, so I ordered three sandwiches: No Spice, Hot and Extra Hot, which is one level below the Reaper. I planned to work my way through them in that order. That’s not how it worked out.
First up, No Spice — which there is no shame in ordering. The tenders are brined and seasoned before frying and are plenty flavourful on their own. With the spice removed from the equation, the creamy, fresh flavour of the kale slaw and juicy acidity of the crinkle cut pickles in the sandwich really stand out. Those two elements along with the soft, slightly sweet bun might be the real secret to Dave’s success.
Moving on to the Hot, or what I thought to be the Hot, proved to be a quantum leap. The sliders are packed into little black sandwich boxes and each one is labelled, so I bit into the one marked Hot ready for a solid dose of heat. What I experienced, however, was closer to what I imagine self-immolation might feel like. I may have whimpered.
While fighting down the urge to panic, I managed to piece together that the sandwich must have been mislabelled.
When my vision returned, I reached for the sandwich labelled Extra Hot and gingerly took a nibble. Sweet relief, it was merely hot. Spicy to be sure, but a veritable cool breeze compared to the blast furnace I’d just consumed. My advice: fear the Reaper.
Scarred by the experience, I wanted to find someone who faced down the Reaper and lived to tell the tale. I found him first in line on opening day. Taras Zenczuk likes spicy things. “I’ve eaten ghost peppers and scorpion peppers before, you know, as a party trick, so I definitely wanted to try the Reaper,” he said.
Zenczuk waited two hours to place his order, a full set of Reapers. “I’ll be honest,” he recalled, “it’s got some heat. I’m not going to advise other people who don’t have a thing for spice to try it, but if it’s your thing, go for it. It’s the hottest chicken sandwich that I’ve found.”
A quick expansion for a spot that was started in 2017 by a classically trained chef and three friends in a parking lot