Dave's Hot Chicken is planning a new restaurant at a prominent corner suite inside Plaza 655, the rebuilt commercial center taking shape at 655 H Street in Chula Vista, marking the Nashville-style chicken chain's first location anywhere in San Diego's South County. Renderings for the project show the restaurant occupying the largest portion of the five-tenant development, a sign of how central the chain is to the site's revival.
The Chula Vista restaurant would add to Dave's Hot Chicken's existing presence in San Diego County, according to WhatNow, which first reported the plans. Since entering the county in Pacific Beach in 2020, the chain has expanded to Solana Beach, Oceanside, Escondido, El Cajon and Mira Mesa, according to SanDiegoVille, which notes that South Bay residents previously had to drive to East County or central San Diego to get a fix. The Plaza 655 location closes that gap.
A Corner Reborn From a 2021 Blaze
The site's transformation carries some weight for longtime Chula Vista residents. The same address was the scene of a three-alarm fire in January 2021 that destroyed an Action Footwear store, injured four firefighters and caused a roof collapse, according to CBS 8, which reported that the ATF National Response Team joined the origin investigation. The property has sat as a stalled corner of the H Street corridor in the years since.
The Plaza 655 redevelopment is reconstructing a modern five-tenant retail center within that same commercial footprint, retaining the site's recognizable mansard-style roofline while upgrading the building envelope to cut down on demolition waste, per the same SanDiegoVille report. Project plans call for five warm-shell suites built for long-term retail and dining tenants, though the identities of the other four have not been announced.
No Firm Opening Date Yet
Lawrence Kourie, one of the Dave's Hot Chicken franchise owners behind the Chula Vista project, told WhatNow the location is expected to open sometime in 2027, though there is no exact opening date yet. Kourie owns the location along with Andrew Feghali and Deryl Pangelinan, who together already run locations throughout San Diego County.
Once open, the Chula Vista shop will serve the chain's signature Nashville-style hot chicken as tenders, sliders and bites, alongside a menu of boxes, loaded fries, mac and cheese, kale slaw, pickles and dipping sauces. There are also cauliflower tenders, sliders, bites and a buffalo cauli mac for non-meat eaters, plus a hot mozz fried mozzarella item served on its own or as a slider. Heat levels run from no spice up to the Reaper, made with Carolina Reaper peppers and reaching more than 100,000 Scoville Heat Units, a level that requires customers to sign a legal liability waiver before ordering, according to Racket.
From a Parking Lot to a Billion-Dollar Chain
Dave's Hot Chicken began in 2017 as a parking-lot pop-up in East Hollywood, started with $900, folding tables and a portable fryer, per the company's own account. It was founded by Dave Kopushyan along with Arman Oganesyan, Tom Rubenyan and Gary Rubenyan. Kopushyan, the chain's co-founder and Chief Culinary Officer, trained under Thomas Keller's Thomas Keller Restaurant Group at Bouchon before developing the chain's hot chicken recipes, a fine-dining pedigree behind an otherwise fast-casual concept.
That scrappy origin has since given way to serious institutional backing. In June 2025, Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital acquired a 75% majority stake in the company in a deal valued at roughly $1 billion, according to Forbes. Roark manages roughly $40 billion in assets and also holds stakes in Subway, Inspire Brands and GoTo Foods. The chain has also drawn celebrity investors including Drake, Usher, Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Strahan.
The financial numbers back up the hype. Dave's Hot Chicken generated more than $600 million in system-wide revenue in 2024, a 57% jump from the year before, with average unit sales topping $3.2 million annually, per Companies History. System revenues are projected to surpass $1.2 billion as the chain's unit count approaches 400 locations worldwide. The pace of that growth was on display in April, when the chain opened eight new restaurants across eight different states in a single day, part of a push toward more than 130 new U.S. openings this year, according to Franchise Wire.
Part of a Bigger H Street Comeback
Plaza 655's arrival lines up with a broader push to revive western Chula Vista's H Street corridor, which sits near the $1.3 billion Chula Vista Bayfront master plan and the Gaylord Pacific Resort & Convention Center, according to CCG Real Estate Advisors. That 535-acre bayfront project is projected to draw more than 500,000 visitors a year and create 4,000 permanent jobs, adding momentum to nearby commercial redevelopment like Plaza 655. Whether the Chula Vista Dave's Hot Chicken opening lands early or late in 2027 may hinge in part on how the broader corridor work along H Street proceeds.
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