Gun Lake Investments announced Tuesday that it has acquired the Hot n’ Now brand and plans to open two new locations in 2025: one in Alpena and one in Wayland near Gun Lake Casino.
GLI is the economic development corporation owned by the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi, also known as the Gun Lake Tribe. GLI is forming a separate entity called HNN Holdings LLC to run Hot n’ Now.
HNN is partnering with northeast Michigan business owner and developer Jeff Konczak, who owns B Cubed Manufacturing. B Cubed makes modular drive-thru buildings and will design and build the new Hot n’ Now standalone structures.
The original Hot n’ Now was founded in 1984 in Kalamazoo by William Van Domelen and the chain grew quickly across the country. The restaurant offered fast food at a low cost, keeping overhead low by offering drive-thru-only service. Ownership changed hands several times throughout the ‘90s before the company filed for bankruptcy in 2004.
There is already one Hot n’ Now in Sturgis, Michigan, but it is independently owned.