Empty building near Fresno mall to get makeover. National restaurant moving in

Boarded-up windows. Graffiti that keeps coming back. A homeless person camping inside the chain-link fence.

It doesn’t sound like a property that was up for grabs in one of Fresno’s prime business zones, but that’s how the old Burger King on Shaw Avenue near Fashion Fair mall has looked lately. The restaurant — which averaged 1-star reviews on Yelp.com — has been empty since it closed more than a year ago.

But it won’t look like this for much longer.

The building will soon be home to a new national restaurant: Dave’s Hot Chicken. A franchisee has signed a lease to take over the building and plans to start a major remodel soon, according to Mitch Wolf, one of four partners franchising the location.

“We’ll gut it and bring it down to studs, walls,” he told The Bee. “We knew we had to do a lot of work.”

It will have new flooring, lighting, seating and kitchen equipment.

If all goes as planned, work could start in August, with an opening later this year or early next year.

“We’re trying to make a building that is going to stand out,” Wolf said. “People are going to say, ‘Oh that’s interesting, fun, attractive,’ — and not dreary or drab, not boring.”

Many Dave’s Hot Chicken restaurants have a bold, artsy, colorful version of graffiti — more like murals than what’s on the building now.

The franchisees don’t know exactly what the Fresno location will look like yet. That will depend upon what the City of Fresno allows them to do, Wolf said.

“We like to have a building to represent our image, which is sort of a fun, hip place,” he said.

The Sacramento Dave’s Hot Chicken has bright red awnings, navy blue walls and graffiti murals that look like they’re busting through white walls.

Others, such as the one in Visalia, are simply standard beige walls with a red sign and red outdoor seating. Those locations save their wild colors for the inside walls.

The partners behind the Fresno Dave’s Hot Chicken also own several Blaze Pizza franchises, including the locations in River Park and Clovis. This will be their eighth Dave’s location, with the franchisees operating under the company name Damm Fine Chicken, a compilation of the partners’ initials.

What is Dave’s Hot Chicken?

In keeping with the trend of hot chicken restaurants opening (and closing) in Fresno in recent years, Dave’s Hot Chicken is a quick-service fried chicken spot that launched in 2017. It joins existing versions in town, such as Angry Chickz and Al’s Hot Chicken.

Dave’s specializes in jumbo hot chicken tenders and large sliders. The streamlined menu serves combos with kale slaw, pickles and fries.

Customers choose their heat level from seven options, ranging from “no spice” to “reaper.”

“It’s pretty darn hot,” Wolf said of the reaper. “There is stuff there that I don’t even eat, and I like spicy food.”

The franchisees are looking to open more locations, possibly in Clovis, he said.