Chick-fil-A celebrates another new restaurant with free food for a year

A new Chick-fil-A restaurant opens this morning at 5260 South Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood (the building was previously a Black-Eyed Pea), but the line started forming yesterday. That's because for the past seven years, the Atlanta-based company has celebrated every store opening with the First 100 Celebration, giving the first...

By Patricia Calhoun

October 28, 2010

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A new Chick-fil-A restaurant opens this morning at 5260 South Wadsworth Boulevard in Lakewood (the building was previously a Black-Eyed Pea), but the line started forming yesterday. That's because for the past seven years, the Atlanta-based company has celebrated every store opening with the First 100 Celebration, giving the first hundred people in line what's billed as a "free year's supply of Chick-fil-A," but only if 52 meal certificates are enough to keep them satisfied.

Still, that's a lot of certificates, since the Belleview Shores Chick-fil-A is one of 78 new locations the chain will have opened this year, after opening 80 locations last year. By the end of the year, the company will have given away a total of $13 million in free food since the restaurant grand-opening tradition began in 2003.

And the prize was choice enough for dozens of people to camp out in the cold outside of the restaurant for more than a day, with the lucky winners named shortly after 6 a.m. this morning. Which means it's too late for you to get in on the deal -- but if you need some Spicy Chicken Nuggets right now, this outlet is serving.

Denver is one of four test markets for that item; Nick Lucchesi recently grilled Chick-fil-A's Steve Barker about the new nuggets.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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