Chicken Salad Chick, the Atlanta-headquartered fast-casual chain that bills itself as the only restaurant concept in the United States dedicated exclusively to chicken salad, is opening a new unit in Palm Coast, Fla., on June 2, adding to a growing cluster of Florida locations as the brand expands its Southeast presence.
The restaurant, situated at 5650 East Highway 100, will mark its debut with a promotional grand-opening event: the first 100 guests in line will receive free chicken salad for one year. The tactic mirrors a playbook the chain has deployed at prior openings to accelerate early foot traffic and build a local loyalty base from day one.
The Palm Coast addition is part of a broader Florida push that has seen Chicken Salad Chick steadily add franchise units across the state over the past several years. Florida, with its combination of retiree-heavy demographics, year-round tourism, and relatively low commercial real-estate barriers in secondary markets, has emerged as a priority growth corridor for fast-casual operators seeking alternatives to saturated Sunbelt metros. Palm Coast, a mid-size coastal city in Flagler County north of Daytona Beach, fits a pattern of the brand targeting suburban and exurban communities rather than competing head-on in dense urban cores. For a deeper look at fast-casual expansion dynamics in the Southeast, see our recent coverage of franchise growth trends in the region.
Chicken Salad Chick was founded in Auburn, Ala., in 2008 and has grown to more than 270 locations across roughly 20 states, operating almost entirely through a franchise model. The concept's narrow menu focus — rotating chicken salad flavors served as scoops, sandwiches, and platters alongside Southern-style sides — has allowed franchisees to operate with relatively lean kitchen staffs and limited equipment footprints, a structural advantage at a time when labor costs remain elevated across the restaurant sector. Industry observers tracking the fast-casual labor cost environment have noted that concepts with simplified back-of-house operations are outperforming peers on unit-level economics.
The company has not disclosed unit-level sales figures or system-wide revenue targets for its current fiscal year. Grand-opening hours and full menu details for the Palm Coast location are available at chickensaladchick.com.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
