{"id":72591,"date":"2026-07-02T19:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=72591"},"modified":"2026-07-02T19:22:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T23:22:52","slug":"fast-growing-hot-chicken-chain-eyes-its-first-lakeland-location","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/07\/02\/fast-growing-hot-chicken-chain-eyes-its-first-lakeland-location\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast-growing hot-chicken chain eyes its first Lakeland location"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It sounds like the Nashville hot chicken craze is finally knocking on Lakeland’s door with a major national player, which is going to make the local food scene very interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the headline hints at a fast-growing regional or national powerhouse expanding into Polk County, Lakeland already has a beloved local heavyweight holding down the spicy chicken crown: LoveBird Almost Famous Chicken<\/strong> on South Florida Avenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it’s a massive national chain eyeing the area, the prime candidate is likely Dave’s Hot Chicken<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has received a request for zoning verification at 3950 S. Florida Avenue, a retail storefront approximately a quarter-mile south of the Polk Parkway interchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The celebrity-backed franchise (with investors like Drake and Samuel L. Jackson) has been expanding aggressively across Florida, recently opening locations in Clearwater, Tampa, and Pinellas Park. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other rapidly growing chains like Hangry Joe’s<\/strong> or Raising Cane’s<\/strong> have also been pushy with their Florida expansions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new chain will face stiff competition. LoveBird<\/strong> has built a massive local following for its 24-hour brined tenders and signature sauces. (In fact, the founders of LoveBird just opened their new smashburger concept, Grievous Angel<\/strong>, in downtown Lakeland across from Lake Mirror.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It sounds like the Nashville hot chicken craze is finally knocking on Lakeland’s door with a major national player, which is going to make the local food scene very interesting.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL2ltYWdlcy0zLndlYnA_Zml0PTMxNSUyQzMxNiZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IkZhc3QtZ3Jvd2luZyBob3QtY2hpY2tlbiBjaGFpbiBleWVzIGl0cyBmaXJzdCBMYWtlbGFuZCBsb2NhdGlvbiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.2iq-7pD44MhHtl9znOgvSNuUxbafle06O9zBj1XAPEUMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA3XC9pbWFnZXMtMy53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiRmFzdC1ncm93aW5nIGhvdC1jaGlja2VuIGNoYWluIGV5ZXMgaXRzIGZpcnN0IExha2VsYW5kIGxvY2F0aW9uIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0._fzlO3QDWnZsheA9PqBzuWFzcgohJiI-cpQOKSSYJTgMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[15084],"class_list":["post-72591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-fast-growing-hot-chicken-chain-eyes-its-first-lakeland-location"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72593,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72591\/revisions\/72593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}