Inventing the Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich
Serving a breaded, boneless chicken breast between two buttered buns is a seemingly simple idea–but it was a novelty for its time. Truett Cathy experimented for years at the Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, GA when in 1964, he finally arrived at the perfect recipe. On that day, the Chick-fil-A® Chicken Sandwich was born. That capital A is on purpose – it means “grade A top quality”. Truett’s customers told him, “We like it, don’t change it again.” And we haven’t.
Restaurant design
Serving communities across the country with more than 2,400 restaurants, today customers can find Chick-fil-A inside airports, malls, college campuses, in the heart of Manhattan, and nestled among the thousands of busy streets connecting neighborhoods in 47 states and Washington D.C. An innovator from the start, Chick-fil-A was the first restaurant to pair shopping and eating by opening its first restaurant in an Atlanta-area mall. Today our restaurant designs are still leading the way, most recently receiving recognition for a California restaurant design that placed Chick-fil-A among the likes of design icons such as Apple, Ralph Lauren, and Lululemon.
Upstream ordering
There’s nothing standard when it comes to doing business in New York City. To meet the fast-paced lifestyle of our urban customers, we created a new and quicker way to serve them by using iPads to take orders in line. We call it “upstream ordering.”
Fresh food prep
At Chick-fil-A we take a “cook less, more often” approach. By studying smart, lean manufacturing principles used in other industries, we have created new ways to serve our guests the freshest food possible while reducing food waste.
Upcycling
Our commitment to the environment is in the very fiber of our being – literally. Our restaurant team member polos are made with rPET fabric from recycled plastic bottles. To date, more than 5.3 million bottles have been reclaimed and repurposed into shirts.
