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September 21, 2026
APPLETON – Ever since they opened their Nashville-style fried chicken food truck in 2023, Essa and Aaron Cole, co-owners of Hot Biddy’s, said they had their sights set on opening a brick-and-mortar location someday.
On Aug. 21, the couple’s dreams became reality.
With patrons lined out the door at 5120 W. Michaels Drive in Appleton, Essa Cole said the grand opening couldn’t have gone any better.
“The grand opening was crazy,” she laughed. “Some people were lined up in front of our door at 6 a.m., which was nuts considering we didn’t open until 11 a.m. The line wrapped around the whole building all the way down around Manderfield’s [Home Bakery], so that was awesome to see.”
Cole said many loyal followers attended the Hot Biddy’s grand opening, where staff handed out 50 goodie bags containing merchandise and gift cards.
“It was a really good turnout,” she said. “Before our grand opening, we had a smaller soft opening with friends and family that helped us work through a few kinks.”
Now that the “craziness” of the grand opening has passed and the Hot Biddy’s storefront has been open for a month, Cole said business has been steady.
“It hasn’t been too insane,” she laughed. “When we first opened, we experienced some longer wait times, but that has also settled down. With kids going back to school and people getting in routines, that also helped us settle into more of a steady routine.”
First appearing in the June 15, 2026 issue of The Business News, Cole said the original plan was to open a Hot Biddy’s brick-and-mortar location within five years.
Opening roughly two years before that time frame, she said it’s amazing it’s all come together so quickly.
“It was my husband’s dream from the start,” she said. “This was going to be our fourth year with the food truck, so to have the brick-and-mortar ready and open two years earlier than planned is super exciting for us.”
Menasha heartbreak
When The Business News chatted with Cole in June for the original story, she said they were hoping to be open by the end of July.
Unfortunately, the Fox Cities area experienced a devastating EF3 tornado on July 27 – something Cole said put the opening slightly behind, but, thankfully, their Michaels Drive location avoided any extensive damage.
“We got really lucky – we just had a little bit of damage to our patio,” she said. “The tornado didn’t hold us back, other than some of our staff having homes in Menasha. We ended up taking the food truck out and serving some free meals to help out the community that has always helped us. We decided to pause the restaurant a little bit to help out those in need.”
With the Hot Biddy’s food truck still going strong, Cole said it was booked solid before the tornado.
After the tornado struck, she said she and Aaron pivoted away from some of their scheduled events and served meals to those impacted by the storm.
“Some of those food truck events were actually going to be held in Menasha,” she said. “The few days we had planned to work on the restaurant, we ended up just prepping stuff to serve some meals in the community instead. The tornado may have set us back a bit, but overall, we also wanted to make sure things would be perfect when we opened.”
With football season now in full swing, Cole said Hot Biddy’s is currently open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.
“After we finally got all of our ducks in a row, we also recently added online ordering through hotbiddys.com,” she said. “You can order on there for pickup or delivery…, [and] it’s actually a little bit cheaper to [order on] our website versus [third-party delivery services].”
With their storefront now a reality, Cole said within three years, they also plan to open a Hot Biddy’s Express on the other side of Appleton.
She said the express concept would entail a few booths/tables, no beer, etc.
“It would be more of a pickup/takeout situation on the other side of Appleton,” Cole said. “We’re taking it one step at a time and trying to play it smart so we do everything right.”
