LOWER NAZARETH TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The Lehigh Valley’s first Dave’s Hot Chicken quietly opened its doors Thursday, with a grand opening set for Friday at Nazareth Crossing shopping center.
The Nashville-style hot chicken chain is opening at 3812 Easton-Nazareth Highway, in the renovated end unit that formerly housed a Saladworks, next to a Wawa.
The location is the chain’s first in the Lehigh Valley; it has roughly 400 locations nationwide. The restaurant seats 37 guests and plans to operate 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Kings Point Ventures runs the location and operates four other Pennsylvania locations in Lebanon, Chambersburg, Mechanicsburg, and York. Tom Carpenter, the company’s chief operating officer, told WFMZ the company plans to “continue to develop new stores” in the region.
Dave’s Hot Chicken confirmed the Easton-area opening on its own Instagram account this week, posting that the location would open Friday, Sept. 18, and that it would have a soft opening a day earlier.
“#EastonPA we hope you’re hungry, because your @daveshotchicken opens Friday, 9/18! … PS: the secret soft opening is on Thursday, 9/17, but don’t tell the others,” the company said in the caption of its Instagram post.
One customer who visited during Thursday’s soft opening said the crowd was far smaller than he expected.
“I was surprised that the soft opening today was much less crowded than I anticipated,” Brad Stevens wrote in a Facebook post. He said he ordered and picked up his food in under five minutes.
Stevens compared the scene to the chain’s Quakertown location, in Bucks County, which opened in May. “The lines stretched all the way back to the Chick-fil-A on Rt. 309; that’s how bad it was,” he wrote. He said the official opening is set for Sept. 18 but that the Dave’s Hot Chicken mobile ordering app had not yet been updated to list the new location.
Dave’s Hot Chicken specializes in hand-breaded chicken tenders and sliders offered in seven spice levels, along with boneless chicken bites, sides and shakes. The chain was founded in 2017 in Hollywood, California, and has expanded to more than 1,000 franchised locations, with plans for more than 150 new openings in 2026.
Another visitor, Cheryl Beck, posted photos from the soft opening showing the storefront, the counter, and takeout containers of tenders and sliders, writing that the “reaper” spice level requires customers to sign a waiver.
In a photo posted to Facebook by Cheryl Beck, chicken tenders and sliders from the new Dave’s Hot Chicken (Cheryl Beck via Facebook)
