EVERETT — What pairs nicely with a Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich? How about a traffic cop.
The Southern fast food chain, known for its chicken sandwiches and the traffic jams their popularity generates, is proposing to build a new Chick-fil-A restaurant at 1124 SE Everett Mall Way, according to an application filed with the state Department of Ecology.
If history is our guide, expect a side of gridlock when the new franchise opens.
Why so busy?
For one thing, free food.
Chick-fil-A openings are sometimes accompanied by a 24-hour camp out for the “First 100.” The promotion awards one year of free meals to the first 100 adult customers who live in certain zip codes.
Store openings in Bothell, Lynnwood and Marysville each drew a long line of cars waiting outside the restaurant.
It happened most recently in May 2020, when the chain opened a Marysville store. City officials made sure there were police officers on hand to direct traffic.
There’s no official word on when a Chick-fil-A eatery on Everett Mall Way might open. The company did not respond to a request for details.
And plans for the Everett Mall Way site are so new, the address is not yet listed on Chick-fil-A’s website.
An Everett store would be the chain’s fourth Snohomish County location. The first one opened in Lynnwood in 2015.
Chick-fil-A operates more than 2,700 restaurants in 47 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada. And more open every week.
Ten new Chick-fil-A restaurants opened this week across the United States and another 10 are scheduled to open Thursday, Dec. 8, according to the company’s website.
The family-owned and privately held restaurant company has drawn backlash and protests due to its ownership’s longstanding open opposition to same-sex marriage. Last year, for example, some students at Notre Dame University petitioned authorities to keep the the restaurant off the campus because of its “anti-LGBTQ+ activism” and other issues.
Chick-fil-A’s conservative religious values are also reflected in the restaurants being closed on Sundays.
The company was founded in 1967 by S. Truett Cathy. Cathy died in 2014.
Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com;
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