WESTLAKE, Ohio — A Columbus favorite is “taking over” the Cleveland area

• Hot Chicken Takeover has been around for 5 years in Columbus, and is now at Crocker Park in Westlake
• The owner says the community plays a huge role in everything Hot Chicken Takeover does
• Hot Chicken Takeover employs people who may have faced adversity— whether it be struggles with addiction or incarceration

Hot Chicken Takeover has been around for five years in Columbus, but the southern style comfort food just opened Tuesday at Crocker Park in Westlake.

 It all started when Owner Joe DeLoss and his wife took a trip down to Nashville five and a half years ago.

“We experienced hot chicken there,” said DeLoss, “And not just the food, which we fell in love with, but just also the community and hospitality around food. And that community really captivated us.”

DeLoss had the idea to bring that southern hospitality to Columbus and six months later opened up his first pop up.

Today, he has three locations in Columbus and now one at Crocker Park. 

“Everybody has their favorites,” said DeLoss. “My personal favorite, I really love our wings, I go hot. And so, if you if you've never been at Hot Chicken Takeover your first choice is going to be to pick your chicken, and so wings, drumsticks, boneless sandwich, etc., and then from there, you have to pick your heat level. And so, we have four heat levels, cold, warm, hot, and holy cold is going to be like Southern fried chicken, holy is going to be like, really, really hot. And so, I stick to hot, which is our namesake.

They also offer vegan options. Instead of Hot Chicken, it’s called “Not Chicken.”

DeLoss says it’s not just about food though, it’s about the experience.

“I think there's a lot that's special about our business,” said DeLoss. “If you look at our logo, it's a rooster with an asterisk on it, we call this the rooster. And so, this asterisk is about the entire story that's bigger than just chicken. And so, we think, you know, our business is on a mission to provide extraordinary experiences for extraordinary people. And that starts with our staff and our team environment. And it really expands into our guest environment,” said DeLoss

Community plays a large role in everything Hot Chicken Takeover does.

This week, one dollar of every meal goes to Neighborhood Alliance. 

The company also employs people who may have faced adversity like struggles with addiction, homelessness or incarceration. 

“This is a community of people that are highly ambitious and focused on their future and it makes our business great,” said DeLoss. “And so, as customers come in here and become guests and members of this kind of hot chicken family and be brought into that community of people, and it's really important that they value that.”