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The chain's origin can be traced to the Dwarf Grill (now the Dwarf House), a restaurant opened by S. Truett Cathy, the chain's former chairman and CEO, in Hapeville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, in 1946, which is near the location of the Ford Motor Company Atlanta Assembly Plant, for many years a source of many of the restaurant's patrons. It was later remodelled, reopening in 2022.In 1961, after 15 years in the fast-food business, Cathy found a pressure-fryer that could cook the chicken sandwich in the same time it took to cook a hamburger. Following this discovery, he registered the name Chick-fil-A, Inc. The company's trademarked slogan, "We Didn't Invent the Chicken, Just the Chicken Sandwich," refers to their flagship menu item, the Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich. Though Chick-Fil-A was the first national chain to make a fast, fried chicken sandwich its flagship item, it has been shown that Cathy's claim to have "invented the chicken sandwich" is false.From 1964 to 1967, the sandwich was licensed to over fifty eateries, including Waffle House and the concession stands of the new Houston Astrodome.The Chick-Fil-A sandwich was withdrawn from sale at other restaurants when the first dedicated location opened in 1967, in the food court of the Greenbriar Mall in Atlanta.During the 1970s and early 1980s, the chain expanded by opening new locations in suburban malls' food courts. The first freestanding location was opened April 16, 1986, on North Druid Hills Road in Atlanta, Georgia, and the company began to focus more on stand-alone units rather than food courts. Although it has expanded outward from its original geographic base, most new restaurants are located in Southern US suburban areas.Since 1997, the Atlanta-based company has sponsored the Peach Bowl, an annual college football bowl game played in Atlanta on New Year's Eve. Chick-fil-A also sponsors the Southeastern Conference and the Atlantic Coast Conference of college athletics.In 2008, Chick-fil-A was among the first fast-food restaurants to become completely free of trans fats.In October 2015, the company opened its largest restaurant, a three-story 5,000 square feet (460 m2) restaurant in Manhattan.Sign posted at the Spotsylvania Towne Centre Chick-fil-A location in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Chick-fil-A Sauce was invented at this location in 1983.On December 17, 2017, Chick-fil-A broke their tradition and opened on a Sunday to prepare meals for passengers left stranded during a power outage at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and on January 13, 2019, a Chick-fil-A franchise in Mobile, Alabama, opened on Sunday to honor a birthday wish of a 14-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and autism. On February 13, 2023, they began offering their first non-meat sandwich, a breaded cauliflower sandwich. In May 2023, Chick-fil-A closed its original location in Greenbriar Mall, without stating a reason. |