CULLMAN, Ala. – It’s almost time: find your best stretchy pants and cow print shirt because the highly anticipated grand re-opening of one of the county’s favorite chicken joints – Chick-fil-A (CFA) – is mere days away. After a long 19-week hiatus, the restaurant is slated to open its doors to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2, a day that CFA Operating Partner Breana Posey said can’t come soon enough.
“We have prepared for this and we are so excited that it’s finally here,” she said.
On June 15, 2023, the beloved Cherokee Avenue fast food restaurant closed its doors for a complete rebuild of the franchise location. The property boasts an expanded drive-through to include two extended vehicle lanes and multiple weather canopies, a slightly smaller interior dining area and a larger kitchen with increased capacity to handle the sheer number of guests served daily.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CFA had to be innovative to continue serving the community. With its indoor dining area unusable, Posey and her team channeled their inner Ross Gellar, and with a major “Pivot!”, focused the restaurant’s manpower into a thriving drive-through experience. At one point in the summer months, it reached over 320 cars served in a single hour.
“It’s about 60% of our business,” Posey said of the drive-through. Locals may have already noticed the new drive-through has only two lanes, instead of the previous three, but, Posey said, “These new two lanes will actually hold more cars than we could with three lanes, due to our new layout.”
Two of CFA’s fan favorites are returning alongside the restaurant opening. A brand new play children’s play area has been constructed in the dining room, so little ones can let off some excess energy and caregivers can enjoy a long-awaited meal in peace. And for only 10 days, the Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich will also return to tickle the tastebuds.
Posey said, “We will be honoring the seasonal Honey Pepper Pimento Chicken Sandwich right now; it will be for a limited time. We decided to go ahead and serve that because we had so many from the community reach out and ask about it.”
This week, CFA’s staff of 130 employees and management arrived at the brand-new facility and have been cleaning, stocking and completing updates and training for the newly constructed restaurant’s return to the community.
“We have been extremely blessed to have about half and half with new and returning experience coming back. We did keep most of our employees that had stayed up until our closure,” Posey explained.
Of opening day, she said, “We will have community giveaways all day long. There will be opportunities in the dining room and we will be giving away free items randomly all day in the drive-through lines,” she said. “We will do something for the first 40 dine-in guests. We will not allow anyone on the premises before 7 p.m. on Nov 1. They can camp out; they just can’t be here before 7 p.m. Nov 1, then they have to have all their personal belongings put away before 7 a.m. Nov. 2, opening day. We may have some fun things planned for the campers.”
The grand re-opening is Thursday, Nov. 2, and Posey and her staff will begin serving lunch at 10 a.m. CFA is located at 1830 Cherokee Ave. SW. For employment information, text “legacy” to 205-512-9119. Find out more at www.facebook.com/CFACullman.
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