Last updated on August 12th, 2015 at 04:01 pm
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has a grand opening date set and a local franchise owner for its first full free-standing restaurant in New York City. The restaurant, located at the corner of West 37th Street and 6th Avenue in the city’s Garment District in Lower Manhattan, is set to open Oct. 3 and will be the largest for the chain. The restaurant currently is under construction.
Though this will be Chick-fil-A’s first freestanding restaurant in New York City, the company has operated a small licensed unit with limited access and menu items in New York University’s food court since 2004.
The new three-story, 5,000-s.f. restaurant will be independently owned and operated by soon-to-be city resident Oscar Fittipaldi.
Fittipaldi has been a Chick-fil-A franchise owner-operator since 2010 when he opened the Chick-fil-A in Philadelphia. He and his family are relocating to the New York City area. Prior to his career with Chick-fil-A, Fittipaldi, a native of Concordia, Argentina, was a sailor in the Argentine Navy, a cruise ship captain and a U.S. Merchant Marine
Chick-fil-A is known for its menu of fresh hand-crafted food. Signature items include a hand-breaded, boneless chicken breast sandwich, Waffle Potato Fries and hand-spun milkshakes. The restaurant will make many of its menu items from scratch in the restaurant each day, including hand-rolled biscuits, hand-chopped salads and fresh-squeezed lemonade, according to the company.
Chick-fil-A at 37th and 6th will partner with regional farmers and suppliers to source locally grown ingredients for its fresh, handmade menu items. The majority of fresh produce for Chick-fil-A’s hand-chopped salads will be grown on farms in New York and New Jersey. The restaurant’s fresh bread will be delivered daily from Automatic Rolls of New Jersey, based in Edison, and all of the restaurant’s flaxseed flour flatbread, used to make Chick-fil-A’s low-calorie wraps, will be made by Brooklyn-based Damascus Bakery.
As for its sustainability efforts, the restaurant will be among the first Chick-fil-A restaurants to feature an “InSinkErator” food waste disposal system, which spins and separates liquid from solids. The technology will reduce the volume of the restaurant’s organic waste by 80 percent. The restaurant also will recycle all cardboard and plastic used in back-of-house operations, and provide napkins, tray liners and Kid’s Meal bags made from 100 percent recycled materials. All beverages will be served in compostable paper cups.
The new location will create approximately 180 new full- and part-time jobs, with hiring slated to begin in late August.
Chick-fil-A owns 1,900 restaurants in 41 states and Washington, D.C.
