The restaurant, 9111 E. 40th Ave., will serve customers Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to midnight, offering drive-thru, carry-out, third-party delivery and ordering system.

The restaurant will also feature a walk-up window for carry-out and outdoor patio seating for customers.

To mark the opening, the restaurant will host a “Moove-In Party,” encouraging guests to show up in cow print, whether in full costumes or simple accessories. Customers who participate can redeem one free entrée or kids’ meal on opening day.

U.S. Army veteran Jason Sutton will serve as the local owner-operator, marking his in the community.

“Some of the most rewarding parts of my journey have been leading such an incredible team and building a restaurant culture rooted in care,” Sutton said.

“We’re not just opening another restaurant — we’re expanding our ability to serve a community we care deeply about. I’m honored to open a second location where we can continue to steward our team members in leadership and growth.”

Focused on developing young leaders, Sutton said he looks forward to expanding his impact through the growth and development of his team members.

As part of that effort, Sutton will continue supporting employees through the scholarship program, through which he has awarded more than $150,000 to team members over the past 10 years at Chick-fil-A Quebec Street location. Sutton said he plans to support the Denver community by creating approximately 65 jobs.

Beyond job creation, the news release said Sutton is also committed to giving back to the community with a from Chick-fil-A Inc. to Feeding America in honor of the new restaurant. The funds will be distributed to partners in the greater Denver area.

Chick-fil-A, Inc. is the  in the United States. The family-owned and privately held company got its start in 1946, founded by S. Truett Cathy. 

Chick-fil-A local owner-operators live and work in the communities their restaurants serve. More than 200,000 team members are employed by local owner-operators in more than 3,000 restaurants across the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

Just like the NCAA’s real March Madness tournament, there were plenty of surprises and upsets along the way, but the last sando standing is from the owner of the Scratch food truck, who runs a permanent location inside 300 Suns Brewing in Longmont. The collaboration beat out Dave’s Hot Chicken, a fast-growing L.A.-based hot chicken chain with two locations in Denver.

Nate Say, who partnered with 300 Suns Brewing owners Dan and Jean Ditslear to open the kitchen in 2019, said the brewpub, at 335 First Ave. in Longmont, sold more than 2,000 Nashville hot chicken sandwiches and tenders last weekend as a result of the competition.

Say’s chicken is hand battered, soaked in buttermilk overnight, seasoned with a flour mixture, fried to order, and brushed with hot chili oil.

“It’s been great to just be nominated, be in the running, and go up against all these awesome local businesses,” Say said. “I’m honored we got to be the one to take home first place, and I’m just overall glad it got to be somebody that����ap a local, Colorado-owned business.”

To get to the championship, 300 Suns and Scratch had to knock off some mighty competition, including Blazing Bird, which beat out top contender Music City Hot Chicken, as well as Lea Jane’s Hot Chicken, Republik of Chicken and Colorado Plus Brew Pub.

Dave’s, which has a huge following and more than 100 locations around the country, was It was originally founded by friends Dave Kopushyan (who trained at the three Michelin-star restaurant The French Laundry), Arman Oganesyan and Tommy and Gary Rubenyan as a small stand in East Hollywood.

“It’s a true David and Goliath story … only Goliath is Dave so that’s confusing but, hey, we wanna say thank you to all the customers, friends, new customers, fellow businesses and their staff, teams, organizations, and our team for voting, and Chef Nate for bringing what we think is Colorado’s best spicy chicken to our brewery,” 300 Suns recently wrote on its Facebook page.

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Our March Madness spicy chicken sandwich bracket all comes down to this: national vs. local.

Last week, The Denver Post readers voted on the Final Four in our search for the best spicy chicken sandwich in the Mile High City, and in both matchups, it was an upset.

Dave’s Hot Chicken, an L.A.-based franchise that started in 2017 and has since expanded to more than 100 locations, pushed out its local competitor Denver Biscuit Co. with 57% of the votes.

Meanwhile 300 Suns Brewing, a Longmont brewery that joined forces with Scratch food truck owner Nate Say in 2019, just edged out local chain Blazing Bird with 50.7% of the total.

Say started his food truck Scratch, focusing on smashburgers. He eventually wanted to open a Nashville hot chicken food truck, but ended up partnering with Dan and Jean Ditslear, owners of 300 Suns Brewing to open the brewpub kitchen in 2019. Say said he sells more Nashville hot chicken, which is hand battered, soaked in buttermilk overnight, seasoned with a flour mixture, fried to order and brushed with hot chili oil, more than anything else on the menu.

“We’re really honored to be on the list,” Say said. “Honestly, we’ve kind of flown under the radar in Longmont, but we have great local following. Every year, we’re seeing more and more attention and customers driving in from the southside of Denver and Fort Collins to get our food and beer, so it����ap a great feeling to see that growth.”

Dave’s Hot Chicken, which has two Denver locations, was started by friends Dave Kopushyan, who trained at the three Michelin-star restaurant The French Laundry, Arman Oganesyan and Tommy and Gary Rubenyan as a small stand in an East Hollywood parking lot. Specializing in hot chicken tenders and sliders with seven spice levels, Dave’s Hot Chicken has since been named

So cast your final votes for Dave’s Hot Chicken vs. 300 Suns Brewing. And if you haven’t yet sampled their dishes for yourself, now is the time to indulge. Voting for the final round runs through Monday, April 3, at 9 a.m.

The Final March Madness Spicy Chicken Sandwich matchup

Dave’s Hot Chicken vs. 300 Suns Brewing

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Rather, we’re referring to the results of our 2023 spicy chicken sandwich battle, which started at 32 of the Denver area’s favorite spots for hot chicken and is now down to the final four — and just like the college basketball tournament, there were some bracket busters.

In this case, the biggest upset from our Elite Eight round has to be Blazing Bird edging out the top-seeded Music City Hot Chicken, Colorado’s first Nashville hot chicken restaurant.

Here’s a breakdown of the final four matchups. Voting begins now and runs through 9 a.m. on Monday, March 27, to determine who will play in the championship. Play fair and good luck!

The Final Four Spicy Chicken Sandwich matchups

Blazing Bird vs. 300 Suns Brewing

It����ap a duel between a small Colorado-based chain and a brewery. The Blazing Bird, a family-owned Nashville chicken spot, first opened in Arvada in 2020 and added three more spots in Fort Collins, Englewood and Denver in the last two years. 300 Suns Brewing, on the other hand, partnered with Scratch food truck owner Nate Say to create a brewpub in Longmont in 2019.

Will Blazing Bird’s chicken tender sammy, which can be ordered with heat levels ranging from mild to the waiver-required “blazing,” or 300 Suns’ classic Nashville hot, which can be dusted with ghost pepper, Carolina reaper or habanero seasoning, prove victorious?

Dave’s Hot Chicken vs. Denver Biscuit Co.

National meets local in this fiery matchup. Dave’s is an L.A.-based franchise that started in 2017 and has since expanded to more than 100 locations, earning the title as Its simple menu features chicken tenders or a sandwich with seven levels of heat.

Meanwhile, Denver Biscuit Co., which has six locations in Denver and one in Kansas City, is ready to rumble with The Beeler, a Nashville hot chicken sandwich served on a biscuit with pickles and homemade ranch dressing, or any of its fried chicken sandwiches, which can be also be dipped in the restaurant����ap Nashville hot glaze, made from bacon grease, according to owner Drew Shader.

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Moving forward, we’ve got Denver Biscuit Co., which received a whopping 78 percent of vote, eliminating Knockabout Burgers. 300 Suns Brewing, meanwhile, took out Republik of Chicken with 65 percent of the vote. Music City Hot Chicken had a 62 percent turnout in its match-up with Steuben’s, and Briar Common Brewery won with 62 percent over Carm & Gia Metropolitan.

The matchup between Kickin’ Chicken vs. Birdcall had the highest number of voters, but Kickin’ Chicken proved victorious with 59 percent of the vote. Dave’s Hot Chicken kicked out Lucky Bird with 57 percent of the vote. Lea Jane’s Hot Chicken took 56 percent of the vote against Cluck Chicken. And the Blazing Bird narrowly won, with 52 percent of the vote against Mono Mono Hot Korean Fried Chicken.

Take a look at the next round of matches below, and vote for the Final Four by 9 a.m. on Monday, March 20. Remember to play fair and keep these spicy chicken sandwich games (relatively) clean.

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“Before we opened, we did some research, and outside of having a Nashville-style sandwich on the menu, we didn’t come across any specialty restaurants,” co-owner Sam Graf said.

Graf, 38, and his older brother Jordan, 40, opened Music City Hot Chicken at 111 W. Prospect Road in their hometown of Fort Collins in 2016. Sam had frequently visited a friend in Nashville over the years, fallen in love with the city’s spicy style of chicken, and then developed his own recipe so he didn’t have to travel thousands of miles to satisfy his craving.

“Our Nashville hot recipe now is pretty much the original that I had come up with,” Sam said.

It was good timing as Nashville hot began to capture the palates of people across the country, including Colorado, where restaurants started adding it to their menus.

That same year, national fast food chain KFC added a Nashville chicken sandwich to its menu and began advertising for it. “KFC did all the educational leg work for us with the commercials, and marketing, which helped grow familiarity with what hot chicken was,” Sam said.

Music City was an instant hit. “At the time, it felt like we created a monster,” Sam said. “It was very busy and stressful and far exceeded what we expected. One of the first things I bought for the bar was a cribbage board for slow days and afternoons, but it����ap safe to say we never used it.”

In 2021, the brothers opened a satellite location inside TRVE Brewing, 227 Broadway, in Denver, where they serve a scaled-down version of their menu from a small walk-up kitchen in the back.

Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, which opened in Nashville 80 years ago, is credited as the birthplace of Nashville hot chicken, which was typically served bone-in with toast or bread. It����ap said that hot pepper on fried chicken was initially a punishment for womanizing Thornton Prince, the founder of Prince’s, , which is still open and busy.

Sam, who has worked in the service industry since he was 14, came up with his own recipe using inspiration from previous winners of the Music City Hot Chicken Festival, which is held every year in Nashville amongst amateur chefs; the winning recipe is posted online. He would also talk with chefs on their smoke breaks at places like Bolton’s Hot Chicken, to try to crack the secret recipe.

Music City Hot Chicken serves fried chicken sandwiches, tender, whole wings, half chickens and more, and diners can choose from seven levels of heat, ranging from a mild Southern classic to “Flammable Solid,” made with habaneros, ghost peppers and the Carolina Reaper pepper. Most people stick to the Nashville heat level, which is a step above the hot, Sam added.

“There are some people that are just monsters, and love the ‘Flammable Solid’ level, but a majority of the people that order it get chicken tenders to try it or wager a bar bet,” said Steven Skinner, the assistant general manager at Music City Hot Chicken’s Denver location.

Skinner was a regular at the Fort Collins restaurant before he started working for the Graf brothers. So when they opened the spot inside TRVE Brewing, “they basically asked me if I wanted to get paid for the time I spent there because I ate there so much during their first year,” Skinner said. “And 6-and-a-half years later, I still eat it every single day.”

That dedicated following — some customers drive from Cheyenne, Denver, Loveland, Colorado Springs and Greeley — is partially what convinced the brothers to open in Denver, But mainly, they said, it����ap because they loved the owners of TRVE, the heavy metal-themed brewery. “If that opportunity didn’t present itself, I can’t say for certain that we would’ve opened in Denver at all, but going into it with an already established business made that decision a lot easier,” Sam said.

Nick Nunns, co-founder of TRVE Brewing, said Music City Hot Chicken’s Fort Collins spot was one of the first places they sold beer to, and he got to know Jordan and Sam on his many pilgrimages for hot chicken.

“It����ap been really incredible to see how much things have shifted since they opened in the taproom,” Nunns said. “We started seeing a whole new group of people coming in that we hadn’t seen before. We’re now open for lunch on select weekdays and brunch on the weekends. Our ‘curve’ of business is a lot more smooth than it used to be when the whole taproom would clear out around dinnertime.”

Even with the built-in clientele at the brewery, however, Music City Hot Chicken faces some stiff competition in Denver since there are more hot chicken places than in Fort Collins.

In fact, Music City is one of 32 spicy chicken purveyors that made it into The Denver Post’s annual March madness food bracket challenge, which began on March 1. With help from readers who vote each week, that list was pared down to 16 spots on March 8, and voting is now open to narrow things down to the Elite 8, which will be announced on March 15.

Sam said he’s honored for the recognition, curious to find out who will win, and hopes the home field advantage will give them a leg up. “We put a lot of care and attention into our recipes and the food we create,” he said. “There are some other awesome hot chicken spots in Denver, but I think it helps that we’re Colorado locals, compared to a lot of them.”

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We’ve now entered the Sweet 16 division of our spicy chicken sandwich battle, and things are certainly heating up.

After receiving hundreds and hundreds of nominations last month, we narrowed those down to 32 contestants for our first round of the annual March food bracket competition, based partly on your favorites and partly on our own love for the hot chicken scene.

Last week, we presented the initial 32 players, which we tried to match of based on relevance or similarities. And thousands of you cast your votes. Some particularly fierce voting took place between The Post Chicken & Beer and Birdcall, the latter of which prevailed, and between 300 Suns Brewing and Colorado Plus Brew Pub. But all the matchups provoked debate.

The winners are now moving on to our Sweet 16 bracket, and it’s your turn to help decide which Nashville hot chicken shop, brewery, breakfast spot, Korean fried chicken restaurant, or local gem will take home the crown of the most sizzling, spiciest hot chicken sandwich.

The voting is now live (below) and you have until 9 a.m. on Monday, March 13, to cast your votes and narrow things down to the Elite Eight. Play fair, and may the best bird win!

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Denver likes it hot. That’s the only conclusion we could come to after receiving hundreds and hundreds of nominations for the best place to get a hot chicken sandwich in the metro area.

In the end, we picked 32 contestants for our annual March food bracket competition, based partly on those suggestions and partly on our own love for the hot chicken scene.

Now, it’s your turn again. As people all over the United States begin filling out their March Madness college basketball brackets, we’re asking you to vote for your favorite purveyors of Nashville hot and Korean fried chicken — and help narrow it down to the Sweet Sixteen (which you can do below, underneath the bracket itself.

Voting in this round will be open until 9 a.m. on Monday, March 6. The next round will begin on Wednesday, March 8. Please remember to play fairly as we continue to vote. We’ll do our part to monitor each round to make sure the voting isn’t being spammed. Also, we hope that you’ll use this competition as a guide to discovering some new favorite chicken sandwich spots near you.

Without further ado … .

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But here at The Know, we’re always thinking about food. So, as we’ve done for the past few years (with burritos, tacos�����Ի� pizza, among others), we want to create a bracket of our own. For 2023, we’re going to pit 32 of metro Denver’s best purveyors of spicy chicken sandwiches against one another in head-to-head matchups — and we think the competition will be steamin’ hot.

We know you have opinions, so write to us using the form below, and we’ll consider all of your suggestions — from food trucks and carts to fancy sit-down spots — when compiling our list.

Nashville-style, Korean-style, Denver-style, whatever it is, we want to know about it.

(And although we eat fast food as much as anyone else, we’re going to keep fast food joints on the bench for this particular contest, so please focus on more local options.)

So get ready to eat, vote and battle, because the madness is just getting started.

Help us decide which 32 restaurants will get to compete by .

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