{"id":163124,"date":"2026-02-20T22:18:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:18:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/163124\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T22:18:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T22:18:45","slug":"tampas-hot-chicken-king-just-wants-to-be-joe-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/163124\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa\u2019s hot chicken king just wants to be Joe again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PortraitJoe Dodd at Depot 303 in Mulberry, Florida on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

Depot 303<\/a> is easy to miss. There\u2019s barely any signage on the Mulberry food hall. Its building is tucked away from the main roads, with nothing but a white walled, black steel beam exterior.\u00a0 It\u2019s a simple, inconspicuous, and modest building\u2014just the kind of place Joe Dodd wanted for this new food concept, Chicken and Pig.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Best known for his Nashville hot chicken brand King of the Coop<\/a>, Dodd now takes up residence about an hour away from the Seminole Heights spot that brought him to local fame years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even though he\u2019s still serving fried chicken in familiar cardboard boxes with a slice of potato bread, the product is vastly different from the unapologetically spicy tenders he was known for. With a new recipe completely reworked, Dodd said this is his best fried chicken ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s completely different from everything we ever did before. Like it\u2019s not even close,\u201d he told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. \u201cIf I was going to be done with King of the Coop, I wanted something completely different than what it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rebrand, which officially happened on Dec. 29, is a fusion between the well-known Coop brand and the recently created Italian sandwich concept, Bottega Porchetta. After years of drama with King of the Coop, marred by location closures, failed business attempts, and feuds with keyboard warriors on Reddit, Dodd went back to the drawing board, not for his brand, but for himself\u2014as a chef and as a person. It\u2019s a new start for Dodd, who wants to return to the aspects of restaurateurship that he originally fell in love with, and he wants to keep it simple on purpose, separating himself from the face of the brand in the process.<\/p>\n

Working out of a tiny stall in a food hall in rural Polk County is a far cry from the hole-in-the-wall chicken joint in the bustling Tampa neighborhood that Dodd started at in 2019<\/a>. But after years of emotions\u2014good, bad, and ugly\u2014there is a sense of ease and therapy in the quieter halls of Depot 303.<\/p>\n

Rather than focusing solely on spicy tenders, Chicken and Pig hopes to return to the basics of \u201csimple, relatable, really good food,\u201d as Dodd puts it. He still offers the same Nashville hot spice blend as an option, but it\u2019s not the star of the show. There\u2019s a revamped batter which ditches the gluten-free one used at King of the Coop; Dodd is back to using flour and cornstarch. The new wet batter technique makes for a delicately-crispy chicken, with traditional country seasoning that pairs well with new sides such as the gumbo, collard greens and gouda mac and cheese.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GoudaGouda mac and cheese, collard greens, and cucumber at Chicken and Pig in Mulberry, Florida on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

The tenders get a coating of a sweet rosemary honey glaze, served alongside fries drizzled with rendered fat from the porchetta that goes in the sandwiches. It\u2019s a labor of love that takes three days to prepare. On day one, Dodd seasons pork bellies, drying them overnight, roasting them the next day, cooling them again overnight before they are ready to be sliced on the third day and packed thick into a crunchy, toasted focaccia-style bread.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bottega Porchetta<\/a> started last September, shortly after he arrived at Depot 303. At the same time, Dodd opened a King of the Coop location at the original site of Nebraska Mini-Mart<\/a>, but tragically, that location lasted six short months.<\/a> That was his seventh attempt at a rebirth of his chicken brand, and after that failure, he pivoted to porchetta sandwiches.<\/p>\n

\u201cFood is so subjective, taste is so subjective. These porchetta sandwiches that we do are one of the best sandwiches I\u2019ve ever made in my life,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cBut you could come try it and be like, I don\u2019t like this, and that\u2019s OK. My thing now is if somebody doesn\u2019t like what we make, I don\u2019t really care, and I don\u2019t mean that in a bad way, but there are a lot of lessons that I have learned.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea came when he acquired a rotisserie that Dodd said costs $50,000 but that he miraculously got at an auction for $765. It\u2019s radically different from what Dodd was known for, but it\u2019s exactly what he needed to distance himself from his fried chicken past.<\/p>\n

\"AAfter his seventh attempt at a rebirth of his chicken brand, Joe Dodd pivoted to porchetta sandwiches.
Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\u2018I wasn\u2019t Joe\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

A few years ago, during a phone call with his previous business partners, Dodd began to feel his body was off, but he chalked it up to stress.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the way I felt during the phone call, and I was like, something doesn\u2019t feel right\u2026 like, I do not feel fantastic,\u201d said Dodd.<\/p>\n

He was in the midst of cutting ties with those business partners after having blown through a $130,000 loan in a month-and-a-half, trying to pay off past dues. It wasn\u2019t until a routine check-up with his doctor some days later that Dodd would find out he had had a heart attack during the whole ordeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was near the end of the food hall concept FLocale, which included Dodd\u2019s Nashville hot chicken brand, King of the Coop, along with Westshore Pizza and Rock Brothers Brewing. It was a short-lived venture, only lasting a year-and-a-half<\/a>, but it was around the time Dodd began to question whether franchising his beloved hot chicken brand was a good idea. And after departing from the FLocale group, he tried to save the King of the Coop brand, opening new locations. But they all ended with closures, and six years later, Dodd said he was left with nothing but \u201clessons and bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we had in Seminole Heights was fantastic, and I knew how to run a restaurant, but I did not know how to run two restaurants,\u201d Dodd said. \u201cSo you hire and trust, and that\u2019s when things start to slip in the idea of quality and consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back in the early days of King of the Coop, Dodd said the Seminole Heights location was raking in $40,000 a week. But the success meant that Dodd had outgrown the tiny space on Florida Ave. Pretty soon, he had his eyes set on expansion through franchising; that is the moment that he describes as the start of the end.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After moving out of his original location, Dodd co-launched FLocale in 2022.<\/a> Simultaneously, he was opening up King of the Coop locations in Wesley Chapel<\/a>, South Tampa,<\/a> and St. Petersburg<\/a>. He was also trying to get Westchase operational, which was never able to open, cursed by delays and empty promises from a contractor.<\/p>\n

In an unpredictable series of events, Dodd said a contractor he hired to work on the Westchase location<\/a> went \u201coff the rails.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t do well, and he disappeared,\u201d said Dodd. He and his business partner decided to cut the plug on Westchase, all to show for it was a location that never saw the light of day and $210,000 of total investment, which Dodd said his business partner did not recoup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he just made the attempt to try to grow too quickly before having a solid foundation and team in place, and it just kind of bit him in the ass,\u201d said Danielle Miranda, who ran King of the Coop\u2019s social channels from 2019-2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I definitely feel like the nail in the coffin was when he opened that third and fourth location in St. Pete and SoHo,\u201d Miranda told CL. \u201cNow, he just wants to get back to cooking good chicken and good food. And honestly, it\u2019s probably the smartest thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CrispyWith a new recipe completely reworked, Joe Dodd says this his best fried chicken ever. Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

It was also an abrupt ending to FLocale as the staff was let go without notice, including Miranda. But the internet pointed fingers at Dodd, and he took it to heart.<\/a> On Reddit, he replied to the people who he said were calling out his reputation and for not caring about his employees. And it made him sick, to the point where he said his wife worried she would find him dead of a heart attack from how much it affected him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOther business owners and I were reiterating to him, you\u2019re running a business page,\u201d Miranda said. \u201cYou have to separate it, you have to know in the back of your mind you have a good product. You\u2019re a good person, love what you do, you\u2019re not going to be able to please everyone. People know business owner Joe, but not chef Joe. And that\u2019s what he wanted to get back to his just love and joy for cooking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t Joe, I was the King of the Coop guy,\u201d said Dodd.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He needed a transformation, and it came from a conversation with Zack Gross, who owned Z Grille in St. Pete and now runs Uncle Funz Provisions. Dodd said that his inner circle kept nudging him to stop replying to people online, but it took a sit-down with Gross, who Dodd respected highly, to change his approach not just online, but in the kitchen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me, \u2018Bro, you\u2019re f\u2019ing blacklisted, you\u2019re very outspoken,\u2019\u201d Dodd said. Gross had long separated his personal presence from his business pages on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen somebody that\u2019s not in your immediate circle, who you look up to that has been in your shoes, tells you something, then it\u2019s like, \u2018Huh, all right, now it makes sense,\u2019\u201d said Dodd.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all Dodd needed to kickstart his metamorphosis; he went home that day after meeting with Gross and purged his social media. He made sure his personal profile was unrecognizable and removed himself from the King of the Coop and Bottega Porchetta pages. He was done being the face of a brand. Dodd said he was no longer pursuing food competitions like the Tampa Bay Wine & Food Fest, which he won three years in a row, or being considered for best fried chicken in Tampa, which he won seven years in a row<\/a>. He already had all the accolades he needed. What he didn\u2019t have was peace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not worried about other people anymore,\u201d said Dodd. \u201cI\u2019m focused on those around me, and what they need from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dodd still hopes to open up Chicken and Pig pop-ups every once in a while, closer to Tampa. But it\u2019s on his terms. In the meantime, he\u2019ll be frying chicken and slicing porchetta in his new Mulberry refuge. Whether anyone braves the long trek or if any of those daring enough actually like his food are no longer his biggest concerns. He\u2019s having fun cooking again, and more importantly, he\u2019s just happy being Joe again.<\/p>\n

\"TheDepot 303 in Mulberry, Florida on Jan. 13, 2026. Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Adrian O’Farrill \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

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This article appears in Feb. 19 \u2013 25, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

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