ANDALUSIA, Ala. — A campaign that began with a classroom question and more than 2,000 handwritten letters is about to pay off. Chick-fil-A will open its first Andalusia restaurant on Thursday, Oct. 8, at 80 Hillcrest Drive.
The restaurant opens at 6 a.m. that day and will operate Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Like every Chick-fil-A, it will be closed on Sundays. Customers can order for dine-in, carry-out, at the drive-thru, through third-party delivery services or on the Chick-fil-A app.
Cow spots for a free meal
The chain is leaning on its best-known mascots for the opening. Anyone who visits on opening day dressed in cow spots can redeem one free entrée or kid’s meal, either inside the restaurant or in the drive-thru.
The cow costume offer is a long-running Chick-fil-A tradition, rooted in the company’s advertising campaign featuring cows urging people to “Eat Mor Chikin.” For years, the chain also held an annual Cow Appreciation Day, rewarding customers who show up in cow attire.
Meet the owner-operator
Abby Davis is the local owner-operator of Chick-fil-A Andalusia. Originally from Georgia, Davis started her Chick-fil-A career in 2019 as a restaurant leader in North Carolina, then worked in a range of roles in North Carolina and Georgia, most recently as an operating partner at a Georgia restaurant.
For Davis, the move to Andalusia is something of a homecoming.
“Andalusia has always held a special place in my heart,” Davis said. “Both sides of my family have deep roots in this region, and I spent many summers and holidays here growing up.”
Chick-fil-A’s franchise model is unusual in the fast-food industry. Rather than selling multiple locations to investors, the company typically selects a single owner-operator to run each restaurant day to day. Competition for those roles is famously stiff, and operators are expected to be closely involved in their restaurants and communities.
How a youth leadership class helped bring it to town
Andalusia’s new restaurant has an unusual backstory. About three years ago, members of the 2022-23 Covington County Youth Leadership class attended a session at City Hall on local government and economic development. One of their questions was simple: Can we get a Chick-fil-A?
City leaders explained that Chick-fil-A’s site selectors had previously passed on Andalusia because traffic counts did not meet the company’s thresholds. The students decided to make their case anyway. They organized a letter-writing campaign across local schools and collected more than 2,000 letters, which ranged from elementary students asking for peach milkshakes to high schoolers pointing to the jobs and economic benefits a restaurant would bring. The City of Andalusia forwarded the letters to Chick-fil-A.
When the City Council later approved a development agreement for the restaurant, Mayor Earl Johnson credited the students. “You never know what might help with economic development, but we believe your work was a big help,” Johnson said.
Under the agreement, the city will rebate 2% of local sales tax generated by the restaurant for five years. The site sits near the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and the Western Bypass, a busy commercial corridor.
Former students who took part in the campaign celebrated as construction progressed this year. “Hard work does pay off. You just have to wait a little bit sometimes,” former student Presley Carnley told a Dothan television station in May.
Jobs and community giving
Chick-fil-A says the Andalusia restaurant will create about 100 jobs, up from earlier projections of 50 to 70 positions cited when the development agreement was approved. For a city of roughly 9,000 people, that is a meaningful addition to the local job market, particularly for high school and college students looking for part-time work.
As part of the opening, Chick-fil-A is donating $25,000 to Feeding the Gulf Coast, the Feeding America partner food bank that serves south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The restaurant will also participate in Chick-fil-A Shared Table, a program that redirects surplus food to local soup kitchens, shelters and other nonprofits.
About Chick-fil-A
Chick-fil-A was founded by S. Truett Cathy, who opened his first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, Georgia, in 1946. He is credited with creating the boneless chicken breast sandwich that became the company’s signature, and the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in an Atlanta-area mall in 1967.
The company, still family-owned and headquartered in Atlanta, has grown into one of the largest restaurant chains in the country by sales. It has kept Cathy’s practice of closing on Sundays, a policy he adopted so employees could rest and worship if they chose.
About Andalusia
Andalusia is the county seat of Covington County in south-central Alabama, near the Florida line. The city serves as a regional hub for shopping, health care and education, with LBW Community College and Andalusia Health drawing residents from surrounding rural communities. The opening gives Andalusia and the surrounding Covington County communities a Chick-fil-A of their own.
If you go
- What: Grand opening of Chick-fil-A Andalusia
- When: Thursday, Oct. 8, opening at 6 a.m.
- Where: 80 Hillcrest Drive, Andalusia
- Regular hours: Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; closed Sunday
- Ordering: Dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out, third-party delivery and the Chick-fil-A app
- Opening-day deal: Dress in cow spots for one free entrée or kid’s meal