It’s been more than two years since Chicken Fire set up shop on Colonial Drive near downtown Orlando, but during a recent weekday lunch rush the place was as packed as the hottest new spot in town.

Business at the Nashville-style hot chicken restaurant, which serves tenders, sandwiches and fries, has grown every year, owner Kwame Boakye said. The restaurant opened in December 2020 after taking flight as a food trailer in 2019.

“It’s just become a main category,” said Boakye, 27. “Hot chicken has just become a mainstream category of food now.”

Spicy chicken is soaring around Orlando and across the country.

The Dave’s Hot Chicken chain opened its first Florida restaurant on Alafaya Trail in Orlando last year and now has another location in Altamonte Springs. Lake Mary and Tampa outposts are listed on its website as opening soon.

Lakeland-based Publix is selling a Nashville hot chicken sandwich at its grocery store delis until June 30. Customers there can also get Nashville hot chicken tenders.

The National Restaurant Association ranked chicken sandwiches, specifically those with fried meat and those with spicy and sweet-heat fusion flavors, No. 2 on its top 10 hot trends for 2023 forecast.

“The restaurant sector is producing new concepts and new brands, but really coffee brands and chicken brands are at the apex of the growth,” said San Diego-based restaurant analyst John Gordon.

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At Chicken Fire, sales during the first part of 2023 are 50% higher than they were compared to the same period in 2021 after the restaurant had just opened, Boakye said.

“It’s kind of different than what you get from like Chick-fil-A or some of the other places that’s more chain driven,” said customer Earl Speights, 44. “This has like its own special touch.”

Speights, a Tavares resident, dined with his 14-year-old daughter, Nyva, at Chicken Fire on Thursday.

“It’s an initial explosion,” he said. “When you first bite into it, you get the burst of flavor, the crispiness, and then just I guess it’s basically the taste of Tennessee.”

Nyva also has eaten at Jam Hot Chicken, which opened in Winter Park in 2021. 

“That was really good,” she said.

Chicken Fire also draws people visiting Orlando’s theme parks out of the main tourism district to its location east of downtown, Boakye said.

Part of Chicken Fire’s success has been its social media presence, where it has more than 603,000 followers on TikTok.

“It is unquestionably an extreme sales driver,” Gordon said. “He is literally fishing where the fish are right now.”

Boakye, who was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, moved to Orlando eight years ago after graduating from the University of Akron.

He was able to get a degree at a young age because he took college classes during high school. He has since picked up a Master of Business Administration and another master’s degree in management from Western Governors University.

Boakye, whose dad moved to the United States from Ghana and whose mother’s side of the family is from Alabama, said he had visited Orlando before moving and that Akron was “socioeconomically depressed.”

“I just loved how open the market was in Central Florida… and how diverse it was,” Boakye said.

Boakye said hot chicken was trendy back when he was getting his restaurant started, with places like Kentucky Fried Chicken adding it to their menu, but he was unique locally at the time in building a restaurant around the dish.

“This is something to go all in on,” he said. “I felt like this was something that was going to stay. … I knew it was going to be a mainstay.”

While Boakye has opened another Orlando restaurant called That Wing Spot, he doesn’t plan to open a second Chicken Fire until he has a team that can operate the restaurant as well or better than the original location.

“What he can’t do is stub his toe going into the second store,” Gordon said. “He’s on a golden pathway right now.”

Boakye said he’s focused on more than just increasing sales.

“For me, this is a lifestyle. This is community building. This is relationship building,” Boakye said. “I want to be the favorite place all across the board.”