Colorado Chicken Wars Get Spicier With New Spot in Fort Collins

If you weren't aware, mid-town Fort Collins is pretty chicken crazy. Within just about a mile of each other, from College Ave and Elizabeth to College Ave and Rutgers, you already have three popular chicken and "hot" chicken spots all competing for the same hungry mouths to feed. And now, you're about to get another in that stretch. Call it 'Chicken Mile.'

Get our free mobile app

It's well documented how the corporate-owned Raising Cane's snarls up northbound traffic during busy eating times, so much that they had to figure out a way to reconfigure the drive through to ease the backups on College and are still talking about that second location on the north side of town.

Then you throw local Music City Hot Chicken into the mix, at Prospect and College, with their waffle sides and Fireball Maple Syrup sauce for dipping. The Fort Collins location was the original, though they've since also opened a Denver location.

Last but not least, there's The Post Chicken and Beer, at College and Elizabeth that opened in 2021. Once featured by Guy Fieri on Food Network’s Diners Drive-Ins, & Dives, they started in Lafayette and now run seven locations across the state of Colorado.

But things are about to get even spicier with a new fast-casual chicken player coming to that same stretch of town.

Enter Dave's Hot Chicken into the mix, expected to arrive late summer or early fall, at 1700 S College Ave. Their humble beginnings go back to a little chicken stand in East Hollywood, when four friends - Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan, and Tommy and Gary Rubenyan - armed with $900 and an Instagram account, took over the LA chicken scene nearly overnight.

Since then, they've literally gone worldwide, opening franchised locations across the US, Canada, and even in Dubai. There are currently two locations in Denver.

The first Fort Collins location is being opened by franchisees Jason Beld and Marc Rogers, who also brought Fuzzy's Taco Shop locations to the state.

The fourth chicken joint on College Ave's 'Chicken Mile' is set to open sometime later this year.