Chick-fil-A opens here next week

Published 9:54 pm Thursday, March 6, 2008

MOULTRIE — A new restaurant will be among the local choices, effective next week.

Owner and operator Britt Young said the Chick-fil-A restaurant, located at 502 Lane St., will open up for business on Thursday, March 13. The store will be opening at 6:30 a.m. for breakfast.

Having moved to Moultrie from Pensacola, Fla., about a month ago, Young said he is excited he and his family are a part of Moultrie. He is eager to open up the restaurant and hopes it will become a gathering place for the community.

“I envision Chick-fil-A being a place to come together and do life together,” Young said. “It is a great setting to come together with great food. A lot of people in Moultrie have been looking forward to having a Chick-fil-A here for a long time.”

The Moultrie location is unique in its design and in having an indoor playground, unlike other area locations, Young said. The design itself is a new prototype for Chick-fil-A, with only a restaurant in Arkansas as the only other to have the same design.

As part of the opening celebration, Young said Chick-fil-A will hold its “First 100” starting at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 12. The restaurant will give the first 100 customers at the Moultrie location 52 free meals, but being one of the first 100 customers can be difficult.

People can begin showing up no earlier than 24 hours before the store opens and can not leave the location in order to be one of the first 100 customers, Young said. To help those who stay in hopes of being one of the first 100, there will be a variety of activities available, and a DJ will be on hand to provide entertainment. The “First 100” is meant for those who are true fans of Chick-fil-A, he said.

“This is built around people who are fanatics of Chick-fil-A,” Young said.

Young has worked previously with Chick-fil-A, but he said the opportunity to run a store gave him a chance to reach out to people. He worked at a location in 2001 but had been a church pastor and student minister, most recently in Pensacola, before coming to Moultrie to run the restaurant here. He hopes to use the location as a way to reach out to people.

“I wanted to be more a part of the community,” Young said, “I hope to use the opportunity to positively influence the people and meet them on their turf.”

A Chick-fil-A franchise is also something that runs in the family, as Young said his brother has owned a franchise in Sarasota, Fla., for the last eight years. The two, however, never discussed both owning a Chick-fil-A before, and Young sees it as being from God.

“I felt like it was something that was right (owning a Chick-fil-A),” Young said. “God opened us up to a new opportunity.”