Positioning a cult condiment for the country’s biggest menus.
$40M
REVENUE IN 2024
80%
YEAR-OVER-YEAR
REVENUE GROWTH (2024)
3,000+
RESTAURANTS SERVING
MIKE’S HOT HONEY
230%
INCREASE IN MENU
PENETRATION IN FOUR YEARS
What was the opportunity?
Mike’s Hot Honey had a devoted following and a name guests recognized, but only in small sections of New York City. Scaling into national foodservice meant clearing three hurdles:
A premium price to justify — chains saw a premium ingredient and assumed they could make their own hot honey for less.
A founder-led story — the brand’s best sales tool had been Mike himself, and the story had to travel without him.
Boxed in by pizza — it was known almost entirely as a pizza drizzle, even though its sweet heat could work across a menu from breakfast, to chicken, sandwiches, and snacks.
The brief: prove the premium was worth it, that name brand recognition could drive traffic, and make it easy for chain kitchens to say yes.
“I’m excited for people to try our product in a new way and get their gears turning so they ask, ‘What else can I put this honey on?”
How do you turn a cult condiment into a chain ingredient?
Reframing cost as value. We repositioned the brand around its halo: the value large foodservice players gain by naming it on the menu, the way guests ask for Sriracha or Tajín by name. A branded item brings buzz with younger guests and supports a premium price, as the Hellboy had proven for years in Brooklyn.
Showing it works beyond pizza. Our menu development team built applications across the day, from breakfast sandwiches and crispy chicken to subs, snacks, sweets and drinks, with finishing techniques that protected the heat. We then tailored concepts to specific operator segments, including sandwich, bakery-café, breakfast and fast-casual pizza chains, so each pitch showed the product inside that chain’s own menu.
Making it easier to sell and use. We built the tools a sales team needs to tell the story without the founder: specs, sell sheets, photography direction and pitch decks. We also tested the 24 oz Chef’s Bottle at a drizzle station, and helped identify further opportunities for operators, like dip cups and squeeze packets as dining moved off-premise.
What impact did the work deliver?
Mike’s Hot Honey went from pizzeria favorite to one of the most recognized ingredient brands on American menus, with major chains doing exactly what the positioning argued for: naming the brand.
A flavor that went mainstream — according to Datassential, hot honey now appears on 11.3% of all U.S. restaurant menus, up nearly 230% in four years.
The brand kept growing — by 2024, more than 3,000 restaurants, with revenue expected near $40 million, up 80% from 2023.
National chains, by name: Jersey Mike's added Mike's Hot Honey at every location in 2025 and built a TV-backed Chicken Cheese Steak around it, Red Robin launched a three-item Mike's Hot Honey menu, and First Watch brought back its Mike's Hot Honey Million Dollar Breakfast Sandwich as a fan favorite in 2026, five years after it first appeared.
A crispy chicken staple — KFC drizzled Mike's Hot Honey on its Original Recipe chicken, tenders, nuggets and sandwiches nationwide in 2025; Freddy's followed in 2026 with a Hot Honey Chicken Sandwich and Tenders glazed with Mike's Hot Honey Extra Hot; And Fatburger launched a Mike's Hot Honey Crispy Chicken Sandwich across its 100-plus U.S. restaurants.
From menus to snack aisles — Utz’s Mike’s Hot Honey potato chips launched as a limited-time flavor in May 2023 and went permanent three months later, with sales 4x higher than previous limited-time launches, followed by an Extra Hot chip and pretzels.
From one drizzle in Brooklyn to menus across the country — built with a brand that never stopped believing in its bottle.
Sources & further reading
The brand: Mike’s Hot Honey — Our Story
Growth: CNBC Make It — How Mike’s Hot Honey built a $40 million a year business with a single product
Growth: Datassential: Hot Honey is More Than a Flavor Trend
KFC: QSR Magazine — KFC and Mike’s Hot Honey Partner on New Lineup
Jersey Mike’s: Jersey Mike’s Subs Adds Mike’s Hot Honey for Limited Time
Utz: Mike’s Hot Honey — Mike’s Hot Honey x Utz Chips
Published: November 2026
Restaurant, revenue figures per public reporting; 2024 revenue reported as a company projection. Partner launches per KFC, First Watch, and Utz announcements. Development work per TCE project records.