The best route out of Huntington, Indiana, is US-224, which cuts through downtown and across the Little River. As you head southeast, something unexpected catches your eye- a strange, angular building peeking out from behind the trees. If you’d driven this stretch twenty-five years ago, that building would’ve pulled you in like a magnet. It was home to Hot ’n Now!
William Van Domelen of Kalamazoo is to thank for Hot ’n Now. Van Domelen was a franchisee of Wendy’s and Burger Chef, but sold most of his stake in twenty Wendy’s outposts in southwestern Michigan to start his new venture1. Driven by its simplistic mix of 39-cent burgers, fries, and soda, the chain grew to more than a hundred locations2!
Hot ’n Now wasn’t just cheap, though. It also offered unique menu items like the Trojan Burger, the Big Hot, and the Deluxe Olive Burger with chopped green olives. Sign me up- I keep a giant jar of olives in my fridge at all times! That olive burger was made for weird flavor freaks like me.
In Indiana, Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Michigan City, and Warsaw were all home to Hot ’n Now restaurants by 1989. Additional locations were planned in Anderson, Muncie, and Richmond3, but I’m not sure they were ever built. I remember the unique architecture of one of Fort Wayne’s at East Coliseum near Sherman, but it’s been home to China Express for as long as I can remember.
PepsiCo bought Hot ’n Now in 1990 and made it part of the company’s Taco Bell division. Van Domelen resigned shortly afterwards4. Taco Bell built Huntington’s Hot ’n Now the following year5, but things soon began to go south: in 1995, Taco Bell closed eighty corporate-owned stores, then sold the entire business in 19966.
Hot ’n Now was still home to fifty-three locations in 2002, but the chain dwindled to forty-four stores by 2003, when it was sold yet again. The chain declared bankruptcy in 20047 and most of the locations closed. Today, a single store persists in Sturgis, Michigan, though another -now known as Burger 81- still serves some of the original menu in Bay City8.
Huntington’s Hot ’n Now appears to have been shuttered around 2001. That year, the building was purchased by Xiao Hui Chen for $150,000. B&T Real Estate snapped it up ten years later, then Ari’s Holdings bought it two years ago.
The drive-thru most recently served as Ari’s Gyros & B.B.Q. Ribs and may still, but it was Burger Palace when I occasionally drove past in college9. For a time, the place was also called Malta Burgers. I never stopped there, but I was tempted.
I’m still a little salty I never got to try Hot ’n Now’s legendary Deluxe Olive Burger. Apparently, the olive burger is a Michigan institution10! Fortunately, those of us who dream about Hot ’n Now’s version might have hope on the horizon- just last year, a pair of investors scooped up the rights to the Hot ’n Now brand, with plans to bring it back to life11.
Even if Hot ’n Now never returns to Huntington, it’s heartening to know that someone still sees potential in a brand built on cheap burgers, fast service, and unforgettable architecture. For those of us who missed our shot at the Deluxe Olive Burger, maybe a second chance is on the grill without having to schlep it all the way up to Sturgis. For now, though, that strange building on US-224 stands as a roadside relic of a bold chain that once dared to do things differently.
Sources Cited
1 Hungry for growth, Taco Bell buys Hot ’N’ Now burger chain (1990, December 10). The South Bend Tribune. p. 33.
2 No Quiero Taco Bell: Did new parent drive its Hot ’n Now drive-through burger chain into the ground with bad ideas, or did franchise fail to keep up? (1998, December 7). The Miami Daily Business Review. Web. Retriebed May 28, 2025.
3 New burger place planned at Madison and Adams (1989, September 12). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 14.
4 Johnson, G. (1995, April, 26). Taco Bell Cools on Hot ’n Now Burger Chain. The Lost Angeles Times. Web. Retriebed May 28, 2025.
5 Huntington County Office of Information & GIS Services. (2025). Parcel ID: 35-05-15-400-082.304-005. Huntington County, Indiana Assessor. map, Huntington, IN.
6 (See footnote 2).
7 Hamilton, J. (2016, September 8). After fire, one of Michigan’s last Hot n’ Now restaurants to rebrand. The Bay City Times. Web. Retrieved May 28, 2025.
8 Meier, E. (2016, September 8). There is now just one Hot N Now restaurant in American and it’s in Sturgis, Michigan. WRKR [Kalamazoo]. Web. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
9 (see footnote 5).
10 Cashman, R. (2023, February 24). What Makes Michigan’s Beloved Olive Burger Unique? TastingTable. Web. Retriebed May 29, 2025.
11 Selasky, S. (2025, January 21). Hot ’n Now burger chain is making a comeback in Michigan: Here’s where. The Detroit Free Press. Web. Retriebed May 28.
There used to be a really interesting blog on blogspot called Broken Chains that visited and did deep research into the last remaining vestiges of chain restaurants. Worth reading in my opinion.
There used to a be a very good blog on blogspot called Broken Chains that visited and did deep research on the last vestiges of chain restaurants. Worth reading in my opinion.
I’ll check it out!
The blog is below. Zap Actiondowser hasn’t posted in a few years, and it looks like they deleted their Instagram presence as well.
https://www.brokenchains.blog/
Sweet. Thanks for the link.
I never tried this place, but now I want to. And an olive burger sounds good! My favorite pizza during my college years was pepperoni and green olives. I usually had to be alone to order it, and afterwards I would be thirsty for days.
I want to, too! That pizza sounds awesome. I am perennially thirsty, so I could imagine.