By Meladi Brewer
DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Hot Head Burritos has been locally owned for 11 years this November.

The owners, Jim and Beth Miller, had a vision and turned it into reality. They originally started off in the pizza business owning a few East of Chicago pizza businesses before realizing a change was needed.

“We owned an East of Chicago pizza in Huber Heights, and pizza is not a novelty item. It has been around for forever,” Jim said. “Beth and I got to thinking ‘OK, we need to maybe think about something else.’”

Luck struck when a Hot Head Burritos opened up across from the store in Huber Heights.

“I told Beth about it, and we both were like ‘What is Hot Head Burritos?,’” Jim said.

Both the name and smiley face drew the Millers in. They began to research the company and try the product in order to explore the new competition.

“I tried the product, and it was fantastic,” Jim said. “The sauces and fresh ingredients drew me to it.”

Hot Head offers an array of sauces only offered at Hot Head. The Hot Head sauce is a crowd pleaser, and the store allows the option to mix sauces as well.

“The Hot Head sauce and the Sweet Habanero are by far, and the combination of both is just incredible,” Jim said. “You kind of got a sweet, savory taste along with a little zesty garlic and the combination on any bowl or burrito is fantastic.”

Being small town people, the Millers knew the Hot Head Burritos company had a chance outside of the bigger cities where it normally resides.

“If we make the product exactly the way it is supposed to be made, put friendly faces behind the counter, and we keep the place clean and appealing, the people will come,” Jim said.

Offering a fresh ingredient guarantee, the Hot Head Burritos store does not have a freezer to hold leftover meats.

“Our chicken comes in fresh. We don’t have any freezers in this store, so what we don’t serve that day gets tossed. We make everything fresh every morning,” Jim said, “We have people come in every morning and cut the products, grill the meats, and we grill meats all day long so nothing sits.”

With a unique flavor profile, Hot Head Burritos opened in 2010 and the Millers have been involved with the customers ever since making an effort to recognize faces and learn everyone by name. One of their favorite memories since opening the restaurant is when high school students used to have open lunches and would come in to eat every day.

“Now those high school kids are having kids of their own, and they still come in, so now we’re enjoying almost like a second generation of customers. It’s really enlightening for Beth and I,” Jim said.

Unique to Hot Head Burritos, they offer kids meals. Children receive a cookie and drink with their bowl or burrito, and Jim stated a lot of parents say this is where the kids want to eat because they eat all their food.

“We cater, and there was a little girl’s soccer team, and her dad asked her what she wanted for the year end party? The little girl responded with ‘I want Hot Head,’ so we catered a little girls year end soccer party with Hot Heads,” Beth said.

Jokingly, Jim said they got them hooked on the Hot Head sauce before explaining their serious support for the community.

“We have support for the community and not just Greenville, but all of the surrounding towns. We never say no to anybody when they come in if they have fundraisers going on, Christmas Bazaars, or if they’ve got a 5K run, we give them whatever they want,” Jim said.

Jim added they try to give back to the community because the community has been good to them.

To contact Daily Advocate reporter Meladi Brewer, email [email protected].