Does the area near
White Oaks Mall need another fast-food chicken restaurant? Representatives for Dave’s
Hot Chicken, a Los Angeles-based company specializing in Nashville-style hot
chicken, seem to think so. A building permit recently filed with the city of
Springfield lists the chain as the new tenant planned for 2401 Wabash Ave.,
which most recently housed MOD Pizza.
The Hari Group, a
Naperville-based real estate and development company, is the franchisee for the
Springfield location. It also operates Dave’s Hot Chicken restaurants in other
states, as well as franchise locations for Baskin Robbins, Dunkin, McAlister’s
Deli, Currito and Tide Dry Cleaners, according to the company’s LinkedIn
profile.
Dave’s Hot Chicken got
its start in 2017 as a food stand in East Hollywood, California. Now the chain has more
than 200 locations nationwide with another 42 in the works, according the
company’s website. Illinois currently has half a dozen locations, with most in
the Chicago area, except for Champaign. A new restaurant in Orland Park is also
touted as coming soon.
Dave’s Hot Chicken
will join three other chicken restaurants already located nearby. Chik-fil-A
returned to Springfield in 2016, opening a restaurant on an outlot of White Oaks
Mall 20 years after closing its location inside the mall. Popeye’s is on the southeast corner of Wabash
Avenue and Veterans Parkway, while Raising Cane’s opened on the southwest
corner of the intersection last year.
MOD Pizza opened at 2401 Wabash Ave. in May 2021, sharing the site with Mission BBQ, which is under different ownership. However, the Seattle-based chain lasted less than three years. On April 19, Sangamon County Judge Jennifer Ascher issued an order to vacate to the parent company, MOD Super Fast Pizza LLC, in response to an eviction complaint filed by the property owner, NIKJEF Springfield LLC.
In addition to the Springfield closure,
Restaurant Business reported that MOD Pizza closed 26 other restaurants during
the first quarter of 2024 in a “culling of underperforming locations within the fast casual's previously 553-unit
portfolio.”
