Springfield News-Sun: FOOD NEWS: Local restaurant chain named to national ‘Top 100 Movers & Shakers’ list

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A Kettering-based restaurant chain scored some national acclaim over the weekend when it was named to Fast Casual’s “Top 100 Movers and Shakers” list.

It’s at least the second appearance on the list for Hot Head Burritos, which opened its first restaurant in Kettering in 2007. Hot Head was #54 in the 2012 Top 100 Movers and Shakers list, and earned #57 on the 2018 list, which was announced over the weekend at a national restaurant convention, according to Kelly Gray, Hot Head’s director of real estate. Hot Head co-founders Ray Wiley and Matt Curtis accepted the award with Gray. 

The Top 100 list is selected by Fast Casual, a publication and web site that cover the fast-casual segment of the restaurant industry. Hot Head’s rapid initial growth earned national recognition. In December 2011, the chain was named among the “Ones to Watch” by QSR Magazine, which monitors the “quick-service restaurant” category. Hot Head now operates more than 70 restaurants in eight states. It has been renovating some of its older stores and has added alcoholic beverages, with an emphasis on craft beer and margaritas, at several of its Dayton-area locations. The Mexican chain isn’t the only restaurant chain with a Dayton-area presence to be recognized by the “movers and shakers” list. In 2016, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which opened its first Dayton-area location last November in Springboro, captured first place on on that year’s “Top 100 Movers and Shakers” list.