STURGIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. — The last known Hot 'n Now in operation will soon stand alone no more.
In January, an Alpena businessman and Gun Lake Investments (GLI) announced they had purchased the fast food franchise with plans to open two new locations this summer in Alpena and Wayland, across the street from Gun Lake Casino.
"You pull up to a drive-thru menu and you get overwhelmed," Monica King, CEO of GLI, said about modern fast food. "We want to take it back to basics and make it a pleasant experience for our customers."
Founded in 1984, the Kalamazoo-based burger chain peaked in popularity decades ago, offering a cheap bite to eat at more than a hundred locations nationwide. In 2004, though, its owners filed for bankruptcy and franchises permanently closed their drive-thru windows until only one remained.
"We want it to be hot. We want it to be fast. We want it to be friendly and we want it to be fresh," said Wanda Lesniak, co-owner of the last Hot 'n Now in Sturgis.
Lesniak and her husband, Mike, purchased the restaurant from longtime owner Kees Van Zelst in 2023. Since then, they've persevered in protecting the Hot 'n Now legacy.
"Everything we are today, we owe to him," Lesniak said about Van Zelst.
The restaurant's rarity has turned it into a cult classic of sorts. A proposal once happened at the Sturgis location. Another regular customer, mourning the loss of their Hot 'n Now-loving spouse, once went through the drive-thru as an act of remembrance. Lesniak has a picture saved on her phone of a man whose tombstone bears the Hot 'n Now lightning bolt logo.
"We have people from all walks of life, coming from all over the place," Lesniak said. "It's just very nostalgic to them."
Hot 'n Now's new owners have a history with the restaurant, too.
As a young professional, Alpena businessman Jeff Konczak would purchase a bag of burgers on a Monday and eat them throughout the week to "make it to the next paycheck."
"Everything I found in Hot ’n Now back then is still applicable today," Konczak said. "At the end of the day, everyone's still looking for value, accessibility and simplistic food."
For Monica King, it's a similar story.
"I'm a child of the '80s, a teenager of the '90s," she said. "My family, we loved it."
These two say their business strategy is to tap into that feeling from days past, preserving the familiarity of fast food while making a few tweaks to keep the brand from going bottom up again.
The drive-thru-only design and the beloved olive burger will stay, though the Hot 'n Now logo has already undergone a slight refresh. Konczak also says the new locations will be built by B Cubed Manufacturing, a company of his that designs modular drive-thru buildings, including those used by Biggby Coffee.
The affordability, Lesniak says, is what it's all about.
"That sense of family," she said. "[Someplace where] people can go out to eat and just enjoy their family and not have to go broke while doing it."
