[1] Greek immigrant Nicholas Sarakatsannis founded the first location in 1929 in Newport, Kentucky, just across the Ohio River from the city of Cincinnati.

Today the company also has locations in Erlanger and Covington, additionally distributing a canned version of their chili product in supermarkets in the Cincinnati and Kentucky area, as well as in some Kroger stores in the Dayton, Ohio area.

Nicholas Sarakatsannis immigrated to the United States from Greece in 1912 at the age of 15 in order to escape hostilities between the Greeks and the Turks.

[2] He landed a series of jobs in restaurants and the food industry, eventually arriving in Cincinnati.

The first Dixie Chili restaurant opened its doors in 1929, the year the Great Depression began in the United States and is still a family-owned company.