Dave’s Hot Chicken is preparing what appears to be its first Katy restaurant at Texas Heritage Marketplace. The planned 2,100-square-foot location at 1552 Heritage Oak Lane would bring tenders, sliders and a seven-level spice scale to NewQuest’s roughly $400 million development.
The brand’s current Texas directory lists several Houston-area restaurants but no operating Katy location. That makes this an apparent local debut for a chain that has already spread across the region.
It also brings an unusually sharp contrast: a business that started with about $900 in a Los Angeles parking lot now plans to serve customers inside a 165-acre west Katy development.
Dave’s Hot Chicken Lets You Choose the Heat
The draw starts with hand-breaded Nashville-style hot chicken. Sliders tuck a tender into a soft potato bun with crunchy pickles, kale slaw and Dave’s Sauce. The combination puts crisp chicken, cool slaw and tangy toppings into one sandwich.
Tenders offer another way to order: chicken alongside fries, pickles and sauce, with the heat level doing much of the customization. Creamy mac and cheese and extra kale slaw round out the familiar sides.
The official menu runs through seven heat options: No Spice/Not Hot, Lite Mild, Mild, Medium, Hot, Extra Hot and Reaper. Customers can choose the mild end without signing up for the chain’s most intense seasoning.
That range is central to the concept. One diner can order a mild slider while another chooses a hotter tender, without changing the basic meal. For a first visit, the decision is as much about spice preference as sandwich versus tenders.
Reaper Comes With More Than a Name
Reaper sits at the extreme end of Dave’s Hot Chicken’s scale. The company’s current online ordering materials include a waiver that asks customers to acknowledge its intense heat and associated risks.
Company press materials describe a signed waiver, while the online menu carries an ordering acknowledgment. Both make the same point about Reaper’s intensity. Diners who want the chicken without that extreme heat have six other levels to choose from.
How Dave’s Hot Chicken Started With $900
Long before Katy entered the picture, Dave’s began in East Hollywood in 2017. The founding team includes chef Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan.
The brand’s own history describes three friends pooling roughly $900 for the initial operation. They set up folding tables and a portable fryer in a parking lot. Gary later helped the business grow into its first permanent restaurant.
Social-media attention and word of mouth brought customers, and an early Eater LA report amplified the buzz. Lines followed. What began as a small nighttime food stand became a restaurant business with ambitions beyond its original neighborhood.
The expansion accelerated through franchising. In an April 2026 company announcement, Dave’s reported that a wave of openings would take it past 400 locations worldwide. That milestone gives the Katy project a different backdrop from the original folding-table operation.
TCM’s graphic below illustrates that growth trajectory. Its early-year figures are approximate, not audited annual store counts; recent totals draw on public company and franchise reporting.
A $400 Million Setting in West Katy
Dave’s Hot Chicken is joining Texas Heritage Marketplace near I-10 and Texas Heritage Parkway. NewQuest’s April development update described approximately 800,000 square feet at full buildout across 165 acres, with retail, dining, medical and multifamily components.
The developer’s current leasing plan identifies Target, Lowe’s, Sam’s Club, Academy Sports + Outdoors and Burlington among the larger names. Those plans describe the development’s lineup, not a claim that every listed business has opened.
Restaurants add another layer. Escalante’s, Tony C’s and Kilwins appear around the project’s dining area, while TCM has also covered P. Terry’s plans at the marketplace. NewQuest’s Heritage Grove concept places dining and smaller businesses around a five-acre green space.
The surrounding neighborhoods help explain the location. NewQuest identifies communities including Cane Island, Firethorne and Jordan Ranch in the market it aims to serve. Texas Heritage Parkway also connects I-10 south toward Fulshear, giving the project access beyond the freeway frontage.
Dave’s Hot Chicken Joins a New Restaurant Building
At the building level, the project is a first tenant buildout within new retail space. An earlier state registration identifies Building 5A2 at 1552 Heritage Oak Lane as a 15,050-square-foot shell building, with a filed construction estimate of about $2.08 million.
TCM’s published Jersey Mike’s Katy story covers a 1,400-square-foot restaurant at the same address, Suite 130. NewQuest’s current plan also identifies Dave’s and Biscuit Belly in that restaurant row. It gives the chicken concept a setting among several incoming food businesses.
The Dave’s Hot Chicken registration, TABS2027002171, calls for a 2,100-square-foot tenant buildout with a $500,000 estimated construction cost. It lists Pederson Road Town Center – 139 LLC as owner and Onyx Creative as the design firm.
The filed schedule runs from November 1, 2026, through January 31, 2027. Those are projected construction dates, not an announced opening date.
For west Katy diners, the next milestone is a confirmed opening announcement. For now, the filing puts an address behind the hot-chicken plans: a new restaurant building in a major development, a long way from the brand’s $900 parking-lot start.