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\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n
Jim Bitticks<\/a> had a crisp $10 bill ready for the valet. Then Bill Phelps<\/a> handed the man $100.<\/p>\n The parking lot was only about 30 feet away. Retrieving the car had taken less than a minute. Bitticks looked at his own tip and told Phelps he could have at least let him go first.<\/p>\n Phelps pulled out another $100 bill and handed it to Bitticks.<\/p>\n \u201cMake his day.\u201d<\/p>\n In January 2026, Bitticks became CEO of Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken, moving up from president and chief operating officer. He succeeded Phelps, who became executive chairman.<\/p>\n Asked what he learned from his predecessor, Bitticks talks about taking care of employees beyond their salaries and benefits.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen Bill pay people\u2019s student loans off,\u201d Bitticks says.<\/p>\n Phelps once upgraded a private jet to make room for an hourly graphic artist named Eddie. Earlier, while Bitticks was working at Blaze Pizza, where he rose to chief restaurant officer, a manager called about $200 Phelps had left in a tip jar. She worried he had meant to leave $2.<\/p>\n Bitticks asked Phelps\u2019 longtime business partner Elise Wetzel about it.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s Bill Phelps, generous to a fault,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n Bitticks sees a connection between those gestures and the company Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken has become.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of the Dave\u2019s success story is connected to sort of that willingness to be generous to others,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n That includes sharing experiences and giving people opportunities to learn. When asked about building the team behind the company\u2019s growth, Bitticks starts with believing people can develop the skills they need if someone gives them training and a chance.<\/p>\n He estimates that about 60 of roughly 75 corporate support employees had worked with the leadership team at Wetzel\u2019s Pretzels, Blaze Pizza or Carl\u2019s Jr.<\/p>\n The team has grown across brands because people who worked together before have brought one another into the next opportunity. Bitticks now leads a company staffed largely by those familiar faces, with firsthand knowledge of what they can do when given room to grow.<\/p>\n The graffiti at Dave\u2019s Hot Chicken connects a restaurant in Dublin to a parking lot in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n For Bitticks, that recognizable identity travels alongside something the company cannot export: a franchise partner\u2019s knowledge of the local market. The company initially heard warnings about entering the United Kingdom. An experienced restaurant operator saw an opportunity instead.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know how to do U.K.,\u201d Bitticks recalls the group saying.<\/p>\n The partner backed that confidence with its choice of real estate, combining two neighboring souvenir shops into a corner restaurant on London\u2019s Shaftesbury Avenue. Artwork, construction and marketing helped turn the location into the brand\u2019s highest-volume restaurant for roughly a year, according to Bitticks.<\/p>\n Dave\u2019s also opened in Dublin and signed a deal to expand into 10 additional European countries, including Italy, Poland and Germany.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole model is built around franchisees that know their market,\u201d Bitticks says.<\/p>\n What guests recognize when they arrive comes from a different kind of expertise.<\/p>\n Dave\u2019s began in 2017 as a chicken stand in a Los Angeles parking lot, with street graffiti on the brick wall behind it. When the founders opened their first permanent restaurant, they wanted to preserve that energy. They hired two graffiti artists who were friends of the founders to bring it inside.<\/p>\n The artists have worked with the company\u2019s design and construction team to give new restaurants a family resemblance without repeating the same room.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery single location you go to at Dave\u2019s isn\u2019t exactly the same as another, but feels related,\u201d Bitticks says.<\/p>\n He compares the restaurants to his four children. They look different, but people can tell they belong together. Bitticks says the artists had completed about 98% of Dave\u2019s locations, expanding their team and training others internationally to keep up with growth.<\/p>\n European franchisees bring their local expertise to the business while preserving the visual identity guests associate with Dave\u2019s. A London operator can find the right corner. The design team makes it recognizable as Dave\u2019s.<\/p>\n Restaurant Influencers<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point-of-sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience. Toast \u2014 Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about\u00a0Toast<\/a>.<\/p>\n Restaurant Influencers is proud to have PepsiCo as a sponsor of this episode. Partnering with PepsiCo Foodservice helps restaurant operators drive sustainable growth through smarter digital experiences, AI-backed menu optimization, and tools designed to create more profitable online orders. Check out PepsiCo Foodservice<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nInternational expansion<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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