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Hot Chicken Takeover is a spicy fried chicken restaurant with a cause. Approximately 70 percent of the Columbus, Ohio-based, fast-casual restaurants’ employees are formerly incarcerated or homeless, and now owners Joe and Lisa DeLoss are looking to expand their social justice-based restaurant concept to other markets.
Currently with three locations in the Columbus area, Hot Chicken Takeover is opening a fourth restaurant this summer in Cleveland’s Westlake neighborhood, and hopes to continue with a regional expansion plan moving forward.
In addition to serving Nashville-style hot chicken and Southern sides on long, communal tables, the DeLoss team aims to spread its distinctive HR strategy of offering employment opportunities for at-risk populations.
Before the growing restaurant chain opened in 2014, DeLoss was advocating for change in similar communities.
He began his workforce development and social entrepreneurship career at Freshbox Catering, an Ohio-based catering company that similarly offers employment opportunities to people with criminal records.
When DeLoss and his wife started testing out hot chicken recipes in their home in 2013, growing their culinary brand with an incarceration advocacy bent was the next logical step.
“I felt a deep connection to building a business that creates impact in the community,” Joe DeLoss said. “To be alongside someone as they accomplish huge things in their life is really amazing.”
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