Tiffany Vassos Designs Dave’s Hot Chicken for Explosive Growth

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Tiffany Vassos made it about three months as a stay-at-home mother before accepting her current vice president of design and construction role at Dave’s Hot Chicken.

Vassos had already done incredible things over nearly seven years at Blaze Pizza. She came aboard early and did “about everything under the sun” including construction, IT, and starting the start-up’s training department to boot. She built 350 Blaze Pizza locations across the US, Canada, and the Middle East before deciding to have her second child and raise her family full-time.

“I actually took the call to join the Dave’s Hot Chicken team while I was at the hospital with my second son,” Vassos says, laughing. “Someone I had known had gone to Dave’s and asked if I knew anyone who might be right for the role. I just knew it was the right job for me.”

If you’ve been out of the fast-casual loop, Dave’s Hot Chicken is, in fact, the biggest thing since sliced bread. It’s better. It’s chicken. Since erupting on the LA scene in 2017 with an LA Eater review headlined “East Hollywood’s New Late-Night Hot Chicken Stand Might Blow Your Mind,” Dave’s Hot Chicken has quickly amassed accolades and social media followers.

The business, catering in Nashville-style hot chicken, earned the number one designation of Nation’s Restaurant News’s “Top 500” franchise awards along with Fast Casual’s“Top Movers and Shakers” designations. Vassos joined Dave’s Hot Chicken after its move from the sidewalks of Los Angeles to three brick-and-mortar locations.

“We have incredibly talented LA-based street artists that we fly out to all of our locations to use their talents while incorporating important parts of the people we’re serving in new cities.”

Tiffany Vassos

“I joined at 3, and we’re at about 185 right now,” Vassos says with no sign of fatigue in her voice from the last four years of explosive growth. “It’s been a very wild ride that I wouldn’t change for the world. I’m blessed to be part of this team, that’s for sure.”

This year shows nothing but encouraging signs. In the first month-and-a-half of 2024, Vassos had already opened 5 new locations, and by the end of the year, that number will lie somewhere between 75 and 90. This is the kind of growth professionals in her space hope to see once in a lifetime, but Vassos’s experience at Blaze Pizza gives her the unique distinction of riding the ride once already, and she’s clearly learned from the experience.

“We joke that we live in dog years here at Dave’s, but we used to make the same joke at Blaze,” Vassos says. “One of the major differences is working in the post-pandemic world. I used to work about 9 months in advance, but now I’m working 14 just to be sure that we can stay ahead of any potential pitfalls or delays.”

Success from Vassos’s perspective means keeping design and layout in line with the scrappy spirit that sent the brand into the stratosphere into the first place. The VP says one of the biggest differentiators for Dave’s is its ability to use murals, graffiti, and other special art touches to tell the story of both the brand and the cities in which it operates.

“Our murals and art do so much to separate us as a brand,” the VP says. “We have incredibly talented LA-based street artists that we fly out to all of our locations to use their talents while incorporating important parts of the people we’re serving in new cities.”

An example is design studio Splatter Haus, which has created hand-painted and mixed media murals for numerous Dave’s locations. “[We are] trusted by the world’s fastest-growing franchise with over 1 million square feet installed,” says Splatter Haus founder, Arthur Akopyan, and Dehmq owner, Haibert Sarkisian, who are happy to bring their studio’s talents to other organizations as well. “Elevate the most important feature of your business and let the sales roll in with tailored brand integration designed specific to your needs.”

“It’s been a very wild ride that I wouldn’t change for the world. I’m blessed to be part of this team, that’s for sure.”

Tiffany Vassos

One of Vassos’s most underrated skills might be the care she takes with her vendor partners. She’s spent years building close relationships with vendors she trusts. She provides weekly pipeline reports so they can see what’s in the works and that she’s not simply “talking big” about future work.

Vassos says mistrust is far too common when it comes to vendor relationships and, at the very least, she wants those she partners with to understand that transparency is a two-way street that she abides.

“Our partners know that when we say we’re going to do something, we’re going to do it,” Vassos affirms.

The VP is currently interacting with countless potential franchisees who are coming back to build second and third Dave’s Hot Chicken stops. Vassos says education is critical because, while franchisees may know how they do it, they need to understand how Dave’s does it. But that education process continues to pay off, and the year’s massive and continued expansion is proof.

The current record for multiple Dave’s Hot Chicken openings in a single week sits at seven. But, given the brand’s continuing upward trajectory, Vassos may be looking at a double-digit day  soon. This doesn’t faze Vassos. In fact, it’s hard to imagine much getting to the VP (other than trying to teach her boys to ski). She loves where she is, and she’s happy to ride the rocket ship yet again.

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