Chick-fil-A eyes New York City in planned urban expansion

Big city locales to follow healthier, more community-friendly model

Chick-fil-A cows
Chick-fil-A cows

“A good chunk” of southern fast food franchise Chick-fil-A’s planned urban U.S. locations will be in the Big Apple.

The new restaurants, 108 in the U.S. in total, will reportedly follow a healthier, more transparent and community-friendly model in big cities across the U.S. in an effort to bring in more millennials. That means sourcing local, launching a top-secret grilled chicken recipe and focusing on workers’ rights, the company told USAToday.

“If we can’t do it in New York, we have no business going anywhere else,” Woody Faulk, vice president of design and innovation for the company, told the paper.

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Researchers told the paper the chicken chain will have to deal with high real estate prices and heavy competition, but that its cult following may carry it through. The average Chick-fil-A outpost earned $3.3 million in annual sales last year, dwarfing the average McDonald’s intake at $2.5 million, the paper said.

The restaurant currently has only one location in the whole state, a cafeteria-style operation at 5 University Place on the New York University campus. [USAToday] and [GrubStreet]Angela Hunt