GARMENT DISTRICT — Chick-fil-A, the popular yet controversial Atlanta-based purveyor of fried chicken-and-biscuit sandwiches and waffle fries, is opening its first full-service New York City outpost — and the chain's largest restaurant — on 37th Street and Sixth Avenue this Saturday.
To gear up for the big day, Chick-fil-A plans to give away a meal a week for the next year to the first 100 people who show up Friday evening and camp out overnight until the restaurant opens at 6 a.m. on Saturday, company officials said.
The line-up starts at 5 p.m. on Friday night, though Hurricane Joaquin threatens to make the prospect of urban camping a bit dreary. Diners must live within an 11-mile radius of the restaurant to be eligible for the year of free meals, officials said.
Whether or not they plan on camping out, New Yorkers took to Twitter to proclaim their excitement that the southern chain was coming to the Big Apple.
Found out that I can eat @ChickfilANYC next week. I have never been so happy.
— Rhett Kennedy (@rhettkennedy14) September 29, 2015I am so excited for @ChickfilANYC to open and I don't care who knows it.
— Erica Schecter (@schexmix) September 29, 2015Currently, Chick-fil-A's only New York City location is a stall in an NYU dining hall, though the company has plans to open a second location on West 46th and 6th Avenue in early 2016 and several more restaurants in the next two years, according to the company's website.
In 2012, Chick-fil-A ruffled feathers when its president, Dan Cathy, came out against gay marriage, saying be believed in a “biblical definition” of marriage and that he prayed for "God’s mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we would have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is all about."
In response, former City Council Speaker Christine Quinn tried to get NYU to kick the chain to the curb.
When it opens on Saturday, the 5,000-square-foot, three-story restaurant on 37th will be the largest Chick-fil-A's in the country, according to a release.
CORRECTION: A previous version of the story incorrectly stated that the location of the new restaurant would be 36th and Sixth Avenue.
