Nashville Hot Chicken has exploded in popularity over the last few years, spreading its wings and evolving from a Tennessee staple to a worldwide craze. The combination of the intense heat, the savory spices, and the subtle sweetness is so unique and delicious that it’s no wonder imitators are popping up around the globe.

But there’s only one original, and that’s the Prince family recipe. But this wasn’t some family tradition served at Christmas and passed down lovingly from generation to generation. Nope, the Prince family invented Nashville Hot Chicken out of pure punishment, so you know it’s the real deal. Don’t skip the bread and pickles, you’ll need them later. And maybe some milk.

As legend has it, Thornton Prince came home way too late for the liking of the woman he was living with one night, and she suspected he was up to no good. So, to set him straight, she fried up some chicken for him to eat. But this wasn’t any old fried chicken. She coated the chicken in hot oil and all the fiercest spices she could find, trying to send a message to Thornton that she was not to be fooled around on.

Thornton got the message, kind of. He loved the chicken so much, he decided to open up a restaurant and serve the insanely hot chicken to the rest of Nashville. BBQ Chicken Shack was born in 1936, and it still stands today as Prince’s Hot Chicken. The Prince family is widely recognized as the originators of Nashville Hot Chicken and has seen countless imitators attempt to recreate the blistering heat and overwhelming flavors that Thornton fell in love with nearly a century ago.

That same entrepreneurial spirit that fueled Thornton to turn the attempted murder of his tastebuds into a booming business lives on in his ancestors, who keep his lasting legacy alive today.

Kim Prince is the owner of Hotville Chicken, the Prince family’s expansion to the West Coast, where Nashville Hot Chicken is a new phenomenon taking the city by storm. While many hot chicken shacks have popped up in the past couple of years, there is no substitute for the OG, the one that put hot chicken on the map. And that’s what makes Hotville Chicken so special. The storytelling, the authenticity, the heat.

For our second Drive-Thru Theater event, we’re partnering with some of the best restaurants and creatives LA has to offer, and The Hundreds couldn’t be more thrilled to collaborate with the legendary Prince family and Hotville Chicken. The poem you read at the beginning of this article, crafted by our brilliant designer David Hernandez, is featured on a T-shirt we made with Hotville you can only get your hands on at Drive-Thru Theater.

We were lucky enough to get a few minutes of Kim’s time, as she’s extremely busy running Hotville’s brick-and-mortar location in the Crenshaw District, as well as a brand new food truck that hit the streets at the beginning of the year.

How has LA embraced Hotville Chicken so far?
Like a warm, Southern hug. Everyone has been so hospitable. The community has really taken ownership and made us part of the neighborhood.

How important is support from the community to surviving the kind of year we’ve just had?
We opened with the community in mind and started out doing community service events and getting involved any way we could. We partnered with civic leaders and educators, as well as law enforcement and local clergy. We wanted to do more than just give away free food. We want people to know we’re not just here for the profit, we’re here for the people. Our hiring practices reflect the people who actually live in the neighborhood, and that’s the Black and Brown community. We wanted to be a true mirror of who the community is.

Has anyone ever turned Hotville’s origin story into a poem before?
[Laughs] That was something I was not expecting! Very, very cool. And impressive. I love the poem you all put together and I can’t wait for people to get their hands on the collaboration. I think people are really going to cherish it. Our chicken is not just a trend. Trends come and go. The people who have this collaboration will be able to brag about it later.

A lot of hot chicken spots have opened up in Los Angeles in the last year or so, but Hotville is the real deal, straight from Nashville. What separates your family’s restaurant from the rest?
This chicken is an institution in Nashville, right alongside country music. I don’t know that my ancestors could have predicted hot chicken becoming a worldwide phenomenon but my aunt André always talked about keeping the chicken in the family. While people were always inquisitive about how we made our chicken, Nashville just cherished it for what it was worth. I don’t think anyone’s mimicking, they’re just inspired by us. Our process is very unique and something we hold close to the vest. I haven’t tasted any other Nashville Hot Chicken like ours. Others have come on the scene and hit the mainstream but then you get into a whole conversation about access and systemic oppression that allow people of other communities to afford to get into this game. I don’t call Nashville Hot Chicken “Black food” but it was started by a Black family in a segregated part of town. But people of all races came and ate, even back in the 1930s. So, for the world to get a hold of it, I’m not surprised. We were intent on bringing our history and story to the Crenshaw district, and as people are discovering who we are and what we’re about, there’s a certain pride that goes along with that. It makes me feel accomplished, like I can check that box. We always wanted to do this. Nashville Hot Chicken started with the Prince family.

The story about your Uncle Thornton and the love triangle that sparked the idea for Nashville Hot Chicken is one for the ages. In hindsight, do you think Uncle Thornton would be happy with the relationship decisions he made, knowing it led to a hot chicken empire for your family?
If my great uncle Thornton was alive right now, he’d be so high on life. I could see him kicking his feet up and smiling. He would love to know that his name is part of hot chicken lore forever. It is what it is [laughs]. He always had the ladies saying “ooh ooh” and so did my great granddaddy. It’s a part of the fabric of hot chicken, but casting it forward, I’m proud to say that my dad is a faithful man. Married to one woman and one woman alone for 65 years and they have six children to show for it. They always say the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, but the buck stopped there. [Laughs] I’m so grateful to be able to carry the family legacy forward.

Where would you like to bring Hotville next?
We have a dual-branded food truck with Dulan’s called Dulanville, and that launched in January. We’re going to be taking that thing pretty much everywhere. And we’re currently scouting more locations for Hotville in Los Angeles. We’re keeping our ears to the ground and our eyes wide open.