Nashville, Tennessee is home to Hattie B's, a popular restaurant renowned nationally for its hot chicken, savory Southern sides, and desserts.
Cofounded by father and son Nick Bishop Sr. and Nick Bishop Jr., Hattie B’s Hot Chicken opened its first brick-and-mortar location in Midtown in 2012. Since then, the restaurant has expanded to several other Nashville locations, as well as Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Memphis, and Las Vegas.
Named after the family matriarch, Hattie B's is a brand with heart, offering the community what Executive Chef Brian Morris calls 'big love.'
It all starts with great, fresh, never frozen, chicken. And it's been that way since day one. We're not fancy. There's nothing crazy you can't pronounce on the menu. But it all starts with good fresh ingredients — food you'd be proud to put in front of your grandma.
Feel the heat
Morris sat down with superfan and fellow Nashville resident Madison Gunn to taste the different levels of heat in Hattie B’s hot chicken and to talk about their partnership with DoorDash Drive. Watch as they try to hold a conversation as the heat rises in the video below.
One reason for Hattie B's success is "beautiful, crispy, crunchy, moist, tender, delicious Southern fried chicken," Morris says. The chicken is hand-breaded approximately every ten minutes to deliver maximum freshness to customers. Hattie B's signature spice blend is added to the fryer oil to create the dip, "our whirlpool of love," the Nashville chef noted.
Five heat levels are offered:
Mild
Medium
Hot
Damn Hot
Shut the Cluck Up!
Damn Hot introduces habanero peppers to the mix, while Shut the Cluck Up is an onslaught of ghost, habanero, and cayenne peppers. The fast-casual eatery also offers Southern fried chicken with no added spices.
DoorDash Drive, an on-demand delivery service, allows Hattie B's to reach more customers by scheduling deliveries when needed, paying a flat fee for each delivery of their Nashville hot chicken and other guest favorites, including pimento mac-and-cheese and banana pudding.
The neat thing about DoorDash Drive is you get to be in our ecosystem – Hattie B’s start to finish – and still get the DoorDash experience. We love our Hattie’ B’s website and app, and we want you to be able to stay there and have the Hattie B’s experience. DoorDash Drive lets us bring this right to you from the comfort of our website or app.
A surge in customers led to a DoorDash partnership
Almost immediately after opening its doors in 2012, the restaurant attracted large crowds. Morris explains. “About midway through the first year at Midtown, folks started talking about us. We started showing up on lists, on TV shows. So it really started happening pretty quickly and it was just kind of a groundswell.”
With frequent lines out the door, the restaurant added curbside pickup to reach more customers, but they weren’t staffed to offer delivery services. Eager to serve as many guests as possible, Hattie B’s turned to DoorDash Drive and DoorDash Marketplace.
Working with DoorDash Drive gives restaurants the ability to offer delivery and pickup on their own website or app – keeping their customers within their own brand experience. Working with DoorDash Marketplace allows restaurants to reach new customers on the DoorDash app – including those who may be discovering their restaurant for the first time.
Through DoorDash Drive’s easy integration with the restaurant’s ordering system, Hattie B’s regulars could continue to order and schedule delivery and pickup using Hattie B’s own app and website – with the orders being fulfilled through DoorDash’s network of drivers.
Plus, with a flat delivery fee per order, Hattie B’s can always offer delivery as an option, while only paying for what they use. They don’t need to staff up with full-time drivers; they can dispatch Dashers to deliver directly to their customers on demand.
As Morris says, “DoorDash Drive really helps us keep our lines a little bit shorter. No matter what experience you want — in-store, pickup, or delivery — it’s still the same incredible Nashville hot chicken, sides, and desserts, and everything you've come to expect. Not only is it better for the guest experience, but it demonstrates meaningful, measurable financial results. Best of all worlds. Better for our guests, better for us.”
Those financial results include added revenue and a larger average order size for Hattie B’s.
15% increase in delivery sales
Comparing DoorDash Drive and Marketplace sales July-September 2022 to April-June 2022
$3 increase in average check size
For orders through DoorDash Drive, comparing July-September 2022 to April-June 2022
Their presence on DoorDash Marketplace – with the option to participate in various promotions – helped Hattie B’s reach a new set of customers who hadn’t known or tried them before.
With the combination of DoorDash Marketplace and DoorDash Drive, Hattie B’s gets to reach as many people as possible and maximize sales. In fact, delivery orders per week through both Marketplace and Drive have increased every quarter since October-December 2022, with the highest increase in July-September 2023.
The more we spread out, the more we’re able to give. Whether that’s giving right here in our own house or giving to more people in expanded areas through things like DoorDash Drive.
Continuing to spread the love
Starting more than a decade ago with just one location. Hattie B’s has extended its footprint over time – bringing its famous hot chicken beyond Nashville into Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Memphis, and even Las Vegas.
Delivery through DoorDash is available at all Hattie B's restaurants except for their location at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. "We can't wait for the next ten years, bringing the love and experience that is Nashville to more and more people," Morris says.
