Does Dave's have nugget ice?

What we found

• Welbilt 360 (January 2026) — a magazine from Welbilt, parent of ice-machine maker Scotsman — features Dave's Hot Chicken and says the brand focuses on "food and beverages cooled by Scotsman's nugget ice." It quotes Tiffany Vassos, Dave's Senior Vice President of Design and Construction: fountain drinks are "filled with a chewable nugget ice that customers come back for," and "Ice is an afterthought at a lot of brands, but having these details that elevate your brand sets us apart." The feature says Dave's uses a Scotsman NH1322R-32 Prodigy Plus ice machine above the self-serve soda fountain (with a second machine in the back of house at drive-thru locations) and has sourced Scotsman machines through Avanti Restaurant Solutions since its seventh store. Scotsman's Tony Valvo is quoted calling the ice "very chewable."
• Those claims come from the ice-machine maker, its parent Welbilt, and equipment dealer Avanti — including Dave's SVP as quoted in Welbilt's feature — not from a page published on daveshotchicken.com. Dave's menu and about pages checked October 6, 2026 do not mention ice type.
• Scotsman Ice Systems (March 26, 2026), Welbilt (April 6 and August 18, 2026), and Avanti Restaurant Solutions (February 3, 2026) also posted on LinkedIn about Dave's and Scotsman chewable nugget ice; those posts point back to the same Welbilt 360 feature.
• Customer reports on Reddit also name Dave's for nugget / pellet ice (r/Columbus, r/milwaukee, r/SALEM).
• The owner of Nugget Ice Finder decided (October 6, 2026) to list Dave's as chain-wide based on the sources above. Pins are OpenStreetMap restaurants tagged as Dave's Hot Chicken in the United States only (the chain also has international locations; those are not pinned). Dave's terms reserve its trademarks and forbid copying or exploiting site content without permission, so we did not scrape the store locator and we do not show a logo. On October 6, 2026 this snapshot has 222 OpenStreetMap pins in 39 U.S. states and D.C. One hundred fifty-four pins have a street that starts with a house number, one has a street with no leading house number, and 67 have no street in OpenStreetMap; no house number was guessed. ScrapeHero reported 398 U.S. locations as of July 8, 2026 (third-party directory count; not Dave's locator and not copied here). Welbilt 360 (January 2026) said more than 330 locations worldwide with 10 abroad — store-count context only. The OpenStreetMap gap versus those published counts is unverified (locator not used). If a pinned store doesn't have nugget ice, vote "no longer has it."

222 Dave's locations on the map

Locations from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). They're chain-wide listings, not individually confirmed. If one is closed or its machine is out, vote “no longer has it.”

Cities with the most Dave's locations

By state

Sources

1. Dave's Hot Chicken's Sizzling Success (Welbilt 360, January 2026, pp. 84–85)

   Welbilt Inc. / Welbilt 360 · 2026-01 · Equipment-maker case study

   Dave's Hot Chicken doesn't just rely on its food as a differentiator but also its fountain drinks, which are filled with a chewable nugget ice that customers come back for and post about on social media. "Ice is an afterthought at a lot of brands, but having these details that elevate your brand sets us apart," Vassos explains.

2. Nugget ice takes center stage at Dave's Hot Chicken restaurants

   Scotsman Ice Systems (LinkedIn) · 2026-03-26 · Equipment-maker case study

   Nugget ice takes center stage at Dave's Hot Chicken restaurants.

3. Dave's Hot Chicken… with Scotsman chewable nugget ice in the mix

   Welbilt Inc. (LinkedIn) · 2026-04-06 · Equipment-maker case study

   Dave's Hot Chicken is making waves worldwide with Scotsman chewable nugget ice in the mix.

4. Chewable ice from Scotsman machines

   Welbilt Inc. (LinkedIn) · 2026-08-18 · Equipment-maker case study

   Dave's Hot Chicken is heating up the world with spicy chicken, bold graffiti vibes and chewable ice from Scotsman machines.

5. Avanti Delivers Crave-Worthy Nugget Ice for Dave's Hot Chicken

   Avanti Restaurant Solutions (LinkedIn) · 2026-02-03 · Equipment-maker case study

   When Avanti helped source Scotsman Ice Systems ice machines for Dave's Hot Chicken, the goal was intentional: deliver nugget ice guests actually crave, while supporting the speed and reliability a fast-growing brand demands.

6. Where to get Nugget ice (other than sonic)

   r/Columbus · 2022-11 · Local community report (no public link)

   The new Dave's Hot Chicken has it. I only know because my mouth was on fire post chicken and I was out of beverage so I opened the lid and when these eyes came to rest on that sweet sweet nugget ice it was the best sight they ever saw…

7. Places that have "the good ice", "hospital ice" or "nugget" ice?

   r/milwaukee · 2022-10 · Local community report (no public link)

   Dave's Hot Chicken on Ogden

8. Who Does Crushed/Pellet Ice in Salem?

   r/SALEM · 2023-06 · Local community report (no public link)

   Dave's Hot Chicken, Sonic, Chick-fil-a. Maybe A&W?

9. Site owner decision: list Dave's Hot Chicken as chain-wide

   Nugget Ice Finder (owner decision) · 2026-10-06 · Local community report (no public link)

Menus and equipment change, so call ahead if you're making a special trip.