Cincy Spotlight Featuring Ray Wiley of Hot Head Burritos

Ray Wiley grew up on the West Coast and cut his teeth in the restaurant business during the early years of Pizza Hut when his father owned, and then subsequently sold, several stores. Food was in his blood at that point and he became store manager for concepts such as Pepperoni Express, Domino’s, and Skyline. Supervision of 10 Skyline Chili stores in Columbus Ohio ended up bringing Ray to Dayton in 1989. Ray purchased his first Subway that year and was named Regional Franchisee of the year in 2002, owning as many 15 stores.

In 2007, after studying the Mexican restaurant sector, Ray came up with the idea for Hot Head Burritos in 2007. The focus of Hot Head Burritos has always been fresh food full of customizable flavor. Ray and his partners own 14 of the 70+ Hot Head stores. Hot Head Burritos was named to Fast Casual’s Top 100 Movers and Shaker’s list in 2012 at number 36, 2018 at number 57, and in 2019 at number 61. Hot Head was recognized in Dayton Business Journal’s Top 100 Companies in 2018 at number 67, in 2019 at 57, number 58 in 2020.

In September of 2015, the first store of his next creation, Rapid Fired Pizza, opened and currently has 30+ stores. Ray and his partners own 11 of the 30+ Rapid Fired Pizza stores. Rapid Fired Pizza was the first restaurant in Ohio to add the I-Pour-It self serve alcohol system. The self pour system is now in 3 Rapid Fired Pizzas and 1 Hot Head Burritos. Rapid Fired Pizza was named to Fast Casual’s Top 100 Movers and Shaker’s list in 2020 at number 63. Restaurant Business ranked Rapid Fired Pizza as number 17 in their Future 50 in 2019. Rapid Fired Pizza was recognized in Dayton Business Journals Top 100 in 2019 at number 88 and in 2020 at 83.

Cincy Spotlight

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