Spice Things Up With Hot Chicken Takeover

After his first taste of Nashville’s famous hot chicken on a 2013 visit, Joe DeLoss returned home to Columbus and bought an $80 fryer from Bed Bath & Beyond. Months later in 2014, DeLoss opened his first location of Hot Chicken Takeover and now, after five years, Northeast Ohio gets its own outpost at Crocker Park. The Ohio-based restaurant, which hires people in need of supportive employment, pushes the Nashville staple to new heights with four heat levels: cold, warm, hot and holy. The latter is a hold-on-to-your-seat option that screams hot, hot, hot and one that only about 5% of Hot Chicken Takeover customers order on a regular basis. But for DeLoss, you can’t go wrong with the tried-and-true hot wings and a side of mac ‘n’ cheese and slaw. “I always make the joke: It’s not called ‘Warm Chicken Takeover,’ ” he says. 242 Main St., Westlake, 440-638-1117, hotchickentakeover.com