Latest news with #ArmanOganesyan
The Sun
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Popular US fast food chain giving out ‘best' free food next week as it opens third UK site
A POPULAR US fast food chain is giving out free food this week as it opens its third UK site. Dave's Hot Chicken opened its first UK store on London's Shaftesbury Avenue in December, with fans queuing up outside to get their hands on its notorious spicy chicken. 1 Some people have described it as "the best fried chicken on the planet", while it also has a cult following with celebrity fans including Drake and Usher. The chain is now expanding to other major UK cities, and its newest store in Manchester is set to open in August. In the lead up to the opening, Dave's is giving away free food from a secret Manchester location next Tuesday, July 29. Hundreds of Dave's Signature Sliders will be given out for free at the secret pop up. Some fans have already worked out the location of the pop up, after thousands of Oasis gig-goers spotted posters plastered all over Heaton Park at the band's last Manchester concert on July 20. The posters read "Call for Hot Chicks on 07986 992770", with people who call the number receiving a voicemail revealing the date and location of the secret event. The sliders will be given out on a first-come, first-served basis, so you'll need to get down there quick if you want to make sure to get your hands on the free food. Jim Attwood Managing Director of Dave's Hot Chicken UK said: 'Manchester's been asking for Dave's and we couldn't just open quietly. "Flying a plane over an Oasis gig with a hotline number felt very us. "This is about giving Mancunians a proper first taste of what Dave's is all about. Big flavour big heat big energy. COMING SOON: US Fast Food Chains Invade the UK! "Come down and get involved - just don't hang about once the sliders are gone they're gone.' Along with it's new Manchester store, Dave's Hot Chicken is set to open seven new locations by the end of the year. It opened its second branch in Birmingham earlier this year, taking over a site previously operated by ASK Italian. Steve Holmes, CEO of Azzurri Group, which owns the chain, previously said: "We've had queues at the London site three to four months after opening," he said. "The volumes are still phenomenal. "Dave's gave us the opportunity to move into a new segment with a young consumer, a fast growing part of the market, and a different proposition." Dave's Hot Chicken was founded in 2017 in the US by Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan and Tommy Rubenyan as a late-night pop-up. It now has more than 200 sites across America. The brand is aiming to open as many as 60 venues across the UK and Ireland over the coming years. HISTORY OF DAVE'S HOT CHICKEN Dave's Hot Chicken began as a late-night pop-up in a parking lot in 2017, founded by three childhood friends. At the time, Chef Dave Kopushyan, Arman Oganesyan, and Tommy Rubenyan scraped together $900 to launch the venture. The brand quickly gained popularity, leading to the opening of a brick-and-mortar restaurant in East Hollywood. In 2019, the founders partnered with Wetzel's Pretzels co-founder Bill Phelps to begin franchising. The brand has since attracted celebrity investors like Drake, Samuel L. Jackson, and Usher. It currently operates out of 200 restaurants across the US. Dave's Hot Chicken has now partnered with Azzurri Group to spearhead its UK rollout. Azzurri Group is already a major player in the UK hospitality sector. The owns well-known brands Zizzi, ASK Italian, Coco di Mama, and Boojum. Azzurri employs over 6,000 staff across 230 restaurants and stores, and it serves more than 15 million meals annually. Dave's Hot Chicken has plans to open 60 restaurants across the UK and Ireland. The first restaurant will open on Shaftsbury Avenue on December 7, 2024. Other US chains in Britain Dave's Hot Chicken isn't the only American fast food chain expanding to UK shores. McDonald's rival Wendy's is planning to open 400 locations in Britain, following its return to Britain in 2021 after 20 years. Wendy's is most famous for its square-shaped hamburgers, which are designed to maximise the amount of meat in every bite. Popular chicken joint Chick-Fil-A is also set to bring its beloved chicken sandwiches to Britain's high streets next year, with The Sun revealing the exact locations of its first five UK restaurants. Popeyes entered the UK market in 2021 and has proved to be a hit, with over 38 restaurants now open. Shake Shack and Wingstop have also opened several sites now across the country. .
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How much did Drake make on the Dave's Hot Chicken deal?
Like Toronto rapper Drake, the founders of Dave's Hot Chicken started from the bottom. This month, they may have all cashed in together. On June 2, the high flying chicken chain, which counts the music superstar as an investor, sold a 70 per cent majority interest to private equity firm Roark Capital in a deal that reportedly valued Dave's at US$1 billion (the deal's exact terms weren't disclosed). Atlanta-based Roark is known for its portfolio of major restaurant brands including Subway, Arby's, Dunkin' Donuts, Baskin Robbins and Buffalo Wild Wings, among others. The sale capped a dramatic rise in the fortunes of childhood friends Arman Oganesyan, Dave Kopushyan, Tommy Rubenyan and Gary Rubenyan, who pooled US$900 together in 2017 to start a pop-up selling Nashville-style chicken out of a parking lot in Los Angeles. After six months of hour-long lineups thanks to word of mouth and social media buzz, the company started slinging its tenders, sliders, fries and kale slaw out of its first bricks-and-mortar store in an East Hollywood strip mall. Eight years later, franchising has helped Dave's Hot Chicken grow exponentially into 315 store locations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. Along the way, the chicken chain has benefited from a cult following and a troop of celebrity investors including Drake, who bought his minority stake in 2021. There's no doubt Drake's hype and social media buzz — the rapper has 142 million Instagram followers — has played a part in Dave's Hot Chicken's meteoric ascent. For the last three years, the superstar has celebrated his birthday on Oct. 24 by sponsoring a free chicken giveaway at Dave's Hot Chicken locations in Toronto. The latest valuation also marks a big jump from Dave's Hot Chicken's first deal in 2019, when the four co-founders sold a 50 per cent stake in the business for $2 million to a group of investors led by Bill Phelps, who became the company's chief executive, and movie producer John Davis. The investor group included such celebrities as actor Samuel L. Jackson, journalist Maria Shriver, television host and former NFL player Michael Strahan and Boston Red Sox chairman Tom Werner. The four co-founders reportedly split the remaining 50 per cent stake. At the time of the Roark Capital deal, Forbes reported that Phelps and Davis were the company's largest shareholders with 'roughly equal stakes' (though both declined to reveal exactly how much they owned). Each of the four co-founders owned around 10 per cent of the business and sold 80 per cent of their stakes, netting a cool US$80 million each (before taxes), according to Forbes. So, how much did Champagne Papi make off of the deal? Bloomberg reported that Drake was among the company's biggest investors when he bought his minority stake in 2021, but his exact ownership percentage and how much he paid for it has never been disclosed. If the founders owned a combined 40 per cent (10 per cent each) before the deal and Phelps and Davis were the biggest shareholders with roughly equal stakes, Drake would have to own less than 20 per cent of the chicken chain, with the likely total being much lower than that. With each percentage point worth a cool US$10 million, even a five per cent stake would be worth US$50 million. The Financial Post reached out to Dave's Hot Chicken for comment about whether Drake sold any of his shares as part of the deal, but did not receive a response. Dave's is not Drake's first foray into the food world, but it appears to be his most successful restaurant investment to date. The rapper has opened two Toronto eateries in the last decade: Frings, a venture with chef Susur Lee and his sons that opened in 2015 and closed three years later, and Pick 6ix, a sports bar that opened in early 2018 and closed by the end of 2019. 'I tried the food and it was amazing': Drake buys stake in Dave's Hot Chicken chain Tim Hortons partners with actor Ryan Reynolds on breakfast boxes The rapper has also reportedly invested in green tea retailer MatchaBar and plant-based chicken company Daring Foods Inc. (the same year he bought his stake in Dave's) and collaborated with U.S. entrepreneur Brent Hocking to launch his own whiskey brand (Virginia Black) and champagne (Mod Sélection). • Email: jswitzer@ Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Time of India
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
From $900 parking lot pop-up to billion-dollar franchise in 8 years: How 3 friends turned a chicken stand into a global brand
In 2017, three childhood friends in Los Angeles pulled together just $900 and a dream. Armed with a beat-up fryer, borrowed tables, and an untested recipe for Nashville hot chicken , they set up shop in a modest East Hollywood parking lot. Fast forward to 2024 — their brainchild, Dave's Hot Chicken , has become a fiery global sensation, now sizzling under a deal reportedly worth close to $1 billion. This isn't just a story about chicken. It's a tale of grit, friendship, and flavor-fueled ambition. No Restaurant Experience, Just a Craving for More At the heart of this chicken revolution was 24-year-old Arman Oganesyan , a stand-up comedian with zero culinary background and a pocketful of persistence. His pitch? Selling spicy chicken tenders with a twist. Despite early skepticism — including from chef friend Dave Kopushyan, who famously said, 'I don't even like chicken' on How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz in 2024— Oganesyan's vision proved contagious. Eventually, Kopushyan joined in, and the duo brought in a third friend, Tommy Rubenyan. With no investors willing to bite, the trio pooled their savings and hatched a plan. They began obsessively researching fried chicken, binging documentaries, eating their way through LA's chicken scene, and experimenting in Kopushyan's kitchen. Some attempts were bizarre — like using gummy bears — but serendipity struck when leftover chicken landed in a near-empty pickle jar, creating the now-iconic brine. From Sidewalk Sales to Celebrity Endorsements According to a report from CNBC Make It , the pop-up's first night was modest — just four meals sold to Oganesyan's girlfriend and friends — but within days, word-of-mouth reached food critic Farley Elliott. The buzz exploded. Lines formed. Nightly revenues skyrocketed. Within two months, the team was pocketing $10,000 apiece — a staggering sum for a trio that had just been scraping by. You Might Also Like: Fancy degrees, qualifications don't matter. Shark Tank's Anupam Mittal says you need just 2 skills to be a successful entrepreneur View this post on Instagram A post shared by Arman Oganesyan (@armanoganesyan_) Momentum only built from there. In 2019, a powerhouse investor group — including Samuel L. Jackson , Michael Strahan, and Red Sox owner Tom Werner — took notice. Under the leadership of seasoned CEO Bill Phelps, Dave's Hot Chicken rapidly expanded into a franchising juggernaut. — hiphopunison (@hiphopunison) A Billion-Dollar Bite Recently, the brand's journey took another dramatic turn as private equity giant Roark Capital acquired a majority stake in Dave's Hot Chicken. While the financial details remain under wraps, the deal is pegged at 'pretty close' to $1 billion — a jaw-dropping return on a humble $900 start. — TheFranDawg (@TheFranDawg) With over 300 locations across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and the Middle East, the brand is on track to double its $600 million revenue from last year to $1.2 billion in 2024. Remarkably, the original founders, including Oganesyan, Kopushyan, and the Rubenyan brothers, will stay on board, holding minority stakes and steering the company's next wave of expansion. What started as a leap of faith and a love for heat has become a blazing symbol of how friendship, flavor, and entrepreneurial spirit can change everything — one spicy chicken tender at a time. You Might Also Like: US-based NRI shares emotional post about identity loss despite financial success abroad, seeks netizens' advice
Forbes
07-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Unlikely Group Getting Rich Off Dave's Hot Chicken's $1 Billion Deal
'How late did you guys stay out last night?' jokes Dave's Hot Chicken CEO Bill Phelps. The 69-year-old, who joined the Los Angeles-based spicy chicken chain in 2019 after leading Blaze Pizza and Wetzel's Pretzels, is sitting next to his second in-command, Dave's president and COO Jim Bitticks, another Blaze alumnus, on one side of a large conference room table in Forbes' Jersey City office. On the other side are two of Dave's four cofounders, Arman Oganesyan, 33, and Dave Kopushyan, 34, who do indeed look like they're on their way to (or from) a big night out. Kopushyan, a cook who is the brand's namesake, is coolly dressed in a white T-shirt and blue-washed jeans covered in Black stars. Oganesyan, meanwhile, dons a bright pink and orange Versace silk shirt, matching pink sunglasses and a Hermes belt with shorts, his arms and legs exposed to show intricate tattoos. Though both claim no mischief the night prior, the duo have plenty to celebrate. Their visit to Forbes is the last stop on a whirlwind two-day press tour following the June 2 announcement that Dave's sold 70% of its business to Roark Capital – the private equity giant that owns Subway, Dunkin', Buffalo Wild Wings among other restaurant brands – at a $1 billion valuation. After the interview, they're hopping on a private jet from Teterboro Airport back to Los Angeles. Dave's was founded in 2017 by Oganesyan, Kopushyan, and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan. All four were children of Armenian immigrants who grew up together in East Hollywood and high school dropouts. They started the business as a pop-up in a parking lot near where they grew up. Their cayenne-coated, Nashville-style chicken, which comes in six different spice levels (the hottest of which, 'The Reaper' requires buyers to sign a waiver), gained an immediate cult following. Continued social media hype around the brand, which says its brand organically generates millions of views a week on TikTok, along with a cadre of celebrity investors including rapper Drake helped turn Dave's into a $620 million (2024 systemwide sales) business with over 300 global locations — and a prime takeover target. The Dave's original pop-up was set up in the parking lot of a random apartment building in East Hollywood. Dave's Hot Chicken The four cofounders, who were at one time so broke they say they struggled to pool together the $900 needed to launch the first Dave's popup, are now richer than they ever imagined. Each owned roughly 10% of the business prior to the sale and is selling around 80% of their stakes, amounting to around $80 million (pre-tax). 'The money's in our accounts,' says Oganesyan, who admits he Googled whether Roark could request the money back. 'Wires are permanent. Even if you mistakenly wire money to somebody, you can't take it back.' (The day before announcing the Roark deal, Oganesyan, a former standup comedian who is Dave's chief business officer, posted a photo of himself sitting on the hood of an electric blue McLaren with the caption: 'Patiently waiting for all my relatives in Armenia to call and ask me for money.') It's quite a jump from the last time they cashed out. The founders previously sold half the business – Dave's had just one location at the time – for $2 million in 2018 to an investor group led by CEO Phelps and the Hollywood producer John Davis, son of billionaire oil and entertainment tycoon Marvin Davis (d. 2004) who is now a prominent food investor. (The pair had having previously worked together on Wetzels, which Phelps founded, and on Blaze Pizza.) 'I fell in love with the boys. There was something about them,' says Davis, who claims he knew from the beginning: 'This is a $1 billion company.' It was really Phelps and Davis who helped it grow so big so fast and, while the duo have worked on the other two restaurant concepts together, this one is the most successful concept to date in terms of the company's ultimate valuation. Phelps and Davis both made 250 times their initial investment. According to Davis, he and Phelps were the largest shareholders in the company at the time of the sale to Roark, with roughly equal stakes. (Davis declined to share his ownership stake but says he still kept some after the sale.) Phelps, who also declined to reveal his ownership stake, says he sold off half of his shares and adds that he and the rest of his investment group voted to give away a chunk of their earnings to create a bonus pool for Dave's executives and employees, around 20 of whom will become millionaires. 'The average bonus for the support people all the way down to assistant restaurant manager level was about $100,000,' adds COO Bitticks. A lot of things had to go right for Dave's to end up where it did. One important factor was the founders' timely bet on chicken. 'The two hottest new concepts in the restaurant world are coffee and chicken,' says John Gordon, a restaurant industry expert who is the founder of Pacific Management Consulting Group. In 2010, chicken overtook beef as the most popular meat in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A seemingly insatiable appetite for the protein has helped chicken joints including Raising Cane's, Wingstop and Dave's rank among the fastest growing restaurant chains in America in recent years. Oganesyan says it was this burgeoning trend that prompted him to approach his friend Kopushyan, who he met in middle school, back in 2017. It was a tough sell at first. Kopushyan, who previously worked as a line cook at famed chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon restaurant in Los Angeles, was a vegetarian working at Elf Cafe, a veggie restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. But after a month of lobbying, Oganesyan managed to convince his friend, who developed a recipe he says is 98% the same as the one Dave's currently sells. The pair recruited Tommy Rubenyan and his older brother Gary, who would later help put up the money to open the first store. The operation was extremely scrappy. Though they initially floated the idea of selling out of a food truck, they decided to do the pop-up instead, borrowing tables and chairs from their families and using the $900 to buy a fryer and heat lamps. Dave's is known for its nuggets and sliders, which it sells with pickles, fries and Dave's signature sauce. Dave's Hot Chicken A rave review from local food blog Eater LA five days into business made Dave's an overnight sensation. Within a year, they opened their first restaurant in East Hollywood. Despite being in an area Phelps describes as a 'dump' – 'we would never approve that site today,' adds Bitticks – Dave's food went so viral that the founders claim the restaurant ended the year doing $5 million in sales. 'It was the cult following,' says Phelps. 'It was what they created through Instagram, the [Eater LA] article… It drew people to the restaurant like crazy and there would be two hour lines for that store.' The brand initially relied heavily on marketing its products through Instagram. But it's also become a big hit on TikTok, where it's trendy for people to post videos of themselves eating and reviewing Dave's' sliders, nuggets and fries. Not surprisingly, the founders say there was immediate interest from investors. They shrugged off most inquiries but one stood out: A post-it note left with the restaurant's manager. 'It just said 'founders call John Davis,' recalls Kopushyan. Davis is one of Hollywood's most prolific producers with more than 115 credits – including 'Predator' and 'Doctor Dolittle' – and $8 billion in box office earnings for the films he's backed. Over the past three decades, he's also made a name for himself as a successful early backer of early-stage fast-casual concepts. In 1997, Davis bought into Wetzel's Pretzels, an Auntie Annie's competitor founded by Phelps and Rick Wetzel (Davis and his investment group sold their stake in the business in 2008 at a valuation of $36 million). Davis and Phelps teamed up again in 2012 when they became two of the earliest investors in Blaze Pizza, another restaurant concept founded by Wetzel and his wife Elise. They sold their minority stake in the 380 restaurant chain for an estimated $250 million in 2017. Davis, who is also an investor in Pop-up Bagels, has a simple formula for building winning restaurant brands: bring on board his posse of trusted investors including Phelps, actor Samuel L. Jackson and celebrity investment advisor Paul Wachter ('we just go from deal to deal'), take the biggest ownership stake, install his own management team and install a celebrity to help rep the brand. Davis did exactly this with Dave's, convincing Phelps, who he'd worked with at both Wetzel's and Blaze, to run the brand instead of retiring. Immediately after the deal, Dave's began franchising with the help of a management team almost entirely carried over from Blaze. A recent text exchange between Dave's Hot Chicken investor John Davis and cofounder Arman Oganesyan, who kept the post-it note Davis left at the first restaurant in August 2018. John Davis Dave's second restaurant opened in 2019 and then six more the next year, according to data from the restaurant industry data collector Technomic. They targeted franchisors who had owned a Blaze, Wetzel's or another fast casual restaurant previously. Phelps also helped several executives, including Bitticks and Dave's CFO James McGehee, buy franchise locations (Bitticks owns three currently and has plans to open up two more). Dave's founders now own a combined seven locations. By 2022, a year after Dave's announced rapper Drake as its big celebrity backer (Drake is a client of Wachter's, who helped bring him into the deal, according to Davis), they'd opened nearly 100 locations, many of them in California. They've since more than tripled that number, expanding into 46 different states and seven countries. Dave's systemwide sales hit $617 million last year, up from $392 million in 2023, the Technomic data shows. In 2020, sales were just $22 million. It's not uncommon for trendy food restaurants to hit the gas too quickly on their brick and mortar growth, then suffer when they fall out of style. This is what happened with Subway, which was acquired by Roark last year for over $9 billion after shuttering nearly a quarter of its locations over the past decade. Blaze, Phelps and David' previous venture, shut 30 locations, or 10% of its total stores, last year, according to Kevin Schimpf, senior director of industry research at Technomic. Blaze's sales also dropped from $400 million in 2023 to $357 million in 2024. When asked whether their chain has any reservations about growing too quickly, Dave's leadership is dismissive. 'We understand this business really well,' says Bitticks of Dave's. 'We're going to go from opening 80 restaurants last year to roughly 155 this year, to almost 165 or 170 next year. That's the kind of growth we can maintain.' The company isn't worried about competitors. 'I went into a Popeye's and had their spicy chicken sandwich and said, 'We're going to be rich,' says Phelps. Even beloved brands like Chick-Fil-A and Raising Cane's don't rattle him, citing the eating patterns of his two young adult sons. 'They eat out twice a day,' he says. 'It's not like you only have one shot to eat out this week and it's either Dave's or Raising Cane's.' They're talking a big game but, at least for now, Dave's is still a small fry. According to Phelps, the average Dave's restaurant brings in around $3 million a year in sales (EBITDA margins are between 18% and 20%); data from Technomic suggests that number is closer to $2.5 million. This outpaces the likes of Popeyes, which recorded around $1.9 million in average sales at its more than 2,400 locations last year. But Dave's sales pale in comparison to some of its more ferocious competitors: Chick-Fil-A averaged $9.3 million at its free-standing and drive-thru restaurants last year, while Raising Cane's reportedly hit $6.2 million in average unit volume. Roark began circling Dave's five years ago when it had just 15 locations. The owners joked that the private equity firm was 'stalking' the brand as they were constantly being courted at conferences or, in Phelps' case, even one time on the golf course. Before Dave's Hot Chicken, Bill Phelps cofounded and ran Wetzel's Pretzels until 2019. Dave's Hot Chicken In the end, the owners were keen enough on the $1 billion offer and worried enough about Trump's tariffs and ensuing economic uncertainty that they rushed to close the deal through a 'truncated sales process' after agreeing to the deal initially in January, according to Bitticks. 'The [mergers & acquisitions market] has been very quiet,' echoes Gordon, the restaurant analyst. Plus, there's another good reason for Dave's to get the deal done now: 'Eating out is a form of entertainment,' says Gordon. 'You need to sell when the concept is hot.' What's trending one day may not be trending the next. And as a business deeply rooted in trends, Dave's may be particularly vulnerable to changing cultural tides. Davis, for his part, says it was largely his decision for Dave's owners to cash out when they did. 'We have to take care of our investors and give them the opportunity to get out what they want,' he says. 'What I recommended to all of them is when everything is perfect, that's the time to get out.' He adds that Roark's experience is going to 'open up' Dave's to foreign markets, which his team doesn't have as much expertise in. 'This concept is going to be really good in foreign countries.' Dave's has already sold the rights to open more than 1,000 franchise locations in the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East and Canada over the next five years. Despite the celebratory parade around the sale, Dave's founders and execs insist they are not walking away any time soon. None are contractually obligated to stay on now the Roark deal is done, but they all say they're planning to do so. Oganesyan remains Dave's chief brand officer, while Kopushyan is chief culinary officer. They highlight that they continue to hold a stake in the brand as well as multiple franchise locations. Plus, they say none of the now 55 employees at Dave's HQ have left the company since it was founded seven years ago. As for the customers who may be concerned about what will happen to Dave's in the hands of private equity: 'Our whole journey, when we were in the pop up, people were saying 'Oh when you guys get a store the quality is going to go down.' Then when we started franchising, people were like 'Oh my gosh, the franchising quality is going to go down,'' says Oganesyan. 'Every step of the way, people were always like that. And I think what I was always trying to get across to people is, as long as you have founders and people within the brand who care about the food, they care about the experience, the quality will never go down.'
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
A Billion Dollar Deal In the Works for Dave's Hot Chicken
Eight years after pooling their combined savings of $900 to sell fried chicken out of a yellow pop-up tent in East Hollywood, the four young founders of Dave's Hot Chicken are about to ink a deal to sell their Pasadena-based chain of restaurants for $1 billion according to The Wall Street Journal. Arman Oganesyan, Tommy Rubenyan, and Gary Rubenyan had no restaurant experience when they teamed with chef Dave Kopushyan to create their crave-worthy chicken, slaw, and curly fries. 'We took the idea of In-N-Out,' Oganesyan said in an interview. 'The concept of it and the way it works, and we took the flavor of hot chicken, and we combined it together, and that's how the idea was kind of born'Today, the franchised chain boasts 275 restaurants, from the original brick-and-mortar on Western Avenue to stores in three dozen states, Canada and the Middle East. The chain's investors include Samuel L. Jackson, former California first lady Maria Shriver, Boston Red Sox Chairman Tom Werner, and rapper Drake, and it consistently placed among the best hot chicken restaurants (we ranked it #2 in L.A.) and among the most successful franchises. Last year, food research firm Technomic named Dave's the fastest-growing restaurant chain in course, private equity came calling. Atlanta-based Roark Capital, named for the hard-charging character in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead, is a behemoth in food service and the world's largest investor in franchise companies. The $38-billion fund has already snatched up Carl's Jr., Subway, Arby's, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Jimmy John's, adding them to a portfolio filled with an endless string of strip mall dining favorites: Dunkin, Cinnabon, Jamba, and Baskin Robbins are all part of Roark. Private equity firms manage $6 trillion in assets in every industry, from housing to hospitals to fast food. Throughout all of their success, co-founder and namesake Dave Kopushyan has always done it for the food. 'As a chef,' he said in an interview. 'I'm proud of the food that I make, and I want people to have it. When I see people eat and they look at each other and they smile like 'yeah, this is good.' That's why I do my job.' Be the First to Know! Keep up with the latest from Los Angeles Magazine. Sign up for The Daily Brief below or by clicking here.
