Oakland-based, ’90s-themed hot chicken spot to open in midtown Sacramento next month
This is the kind of hot you might like.
Oakland-based World Famous Hotboys will open a brick-and-mortar location at 1115 21st St. in midtown Sacramento this September following a pop-up Monday, owners Victor Ghaben and Berk Gibbs confirmed in an email to The Sacramento Bee.
Chicken tenders, quarters and sandwiches will be coated with spices spanning Southern mild, medium, hot and hot hot. Heat levels previously ran all the way up to “hella hot,” but Ghaben and Gibbs dialed back after that proved too much to handle for all but the Scoville-happiest customers.
“We scaled it back after multiple concerning reports following people consuming our spiciest flavors,” the owners wrote in an email. “At a certain point you can do actual damage and I feel like we really ride that line as is without our hella hot flavor. Occasionally someone will ask for it and we will make it but you really need to work up to it. We won’t just give it to any person off the street.”
While sides will rotate seasonally and options may differ between the two locations, Southern mainstays such as coleslaw, pimento mac and cheese, greens and crinkle-cut fries won’t be going anywhere. The Oakland restaurant also makes “bonuts,” a biscuit/doughnut hybrid dusted with cinnamon sugar.
World Famous Hotboys’ atmosphere is as much a part of the brand as the food. Hotboys’ website is an animation-heavy throwback to the days of dial-up, and black T-shirts bear the word “Hotboys” across a large yellow W instead of “Wu-Tang.” The 10 to 20 people Hotboys plans to hire for the 912-square-foot midtown location must have “a love for the ’90s and hip-hop culture in general” as well as prior cooking experience, Ghaben and Gibbs wrote in and email.
“We have a pretty funky style, to be honest I’ve been told we have a very unique vibe,” the owners wrote. “We offer an authentic Southern atmosphere mixed with ’90s skateboard, punk and rap culture. “
Started last summer as a pop-up in Oakland’s Forage Kitchen co-working space, World Famous Hotboys quickly developed a cult following for its blisteringly spicy coatings and 1990s-era bright and electric decor. Its only other standalone location opened on San Pablo Avenue at the end of last year.
World Famous Hotboys dipped its toe into midtown with a pop-up last month, though Ghaben told the Sacramento Business Journal he and Gibbs didn’t have a permanent location locked down at the time. A second pop-up will be held Monday from 5 to 10 p.m. or until sold out on 21st Street despite the extreme heat wave, with payment by credit card only and masks required.
“We only want people passing out from spice overload not heatstroke. Bring a lot of water, shade coverage, hats, shades, misters etc.,” the owners wrote in an email. “We will have local vintage clothing dealers setting up with us, they will be showing hand-selected grails (from) across many generations.”
A vertical neon Hotboys sign topped by the restaurant’s smiling flame logo already sits outside 1115 21st St., with more construction going on inside. Gibbs, known in the art world as Berk Visual, painted the fiery blue, red and yellow mural now spanning the restaurant’s southern wall.
Nashville-style hot chicken’s popularity has soared over the last few years, with everyone from national chains to local restaurateurs hopping on the cayenne-coated trend. A Hotboys Instagram post shows the restaurant as Michael Jordan dunking over a slew of competitors, including Sacramento’s own Nash & Proper.
Friends for years, Hotboys’ owners came up with the business idea while work together at Ghaben’s family’s New American restaurant Batch & Brine in Lafayette. They later traveled to Nashville, where Gibbs lived for several years, and tried every hot chicken sandwich they could find as research.
World Famous Hotboys will be open three or four days a week with limited hours to start, Ghaben and Gibbs said. The building can fit 17 customers, including 5 counter seats, once dine-in service is allowed.