A second Chick-fil-A store is opening April 2nd in midtown Manhattan. The new, even-larger location will be located at the corner of West 46th Street and 6th Avenue near Rockefeller Center.
The space covers nearly 5,000 square feet across two floors and boasts an employee count of more than 200 full- and part-time workers to help handle the overflow from Times Square just two blocks away. This layout is “designed to meet high volume demands, and the pace and quality expectations of New Yorkers,” the company said in its announcement.
The ordering, production, and assembly capacity are much higher at the new location compared with Chick-fil-A’s average restaurant, according to the company. Chick-fil-A will also station employees with tablets at the entrance to take customer orders while in line so that their food is ready by the time they reach the counter. This is expected to keep wait times to just six to eight minutes from when guests enter the restaurant to picking up their food.
The new location comes just months after Chick-fil-A’s original location in Manhattan’s Herald Square faced a slew of health code violations. The restaurant voluntarily closed on Dec. 30 after the NYC Department of Health officials cited the store for six health code violations, including a failure to keep cold food at a proper temperature and wiping cloths that were not properly sanitized. It reopened six days later after reportedly addressing those concerns.
Chick-fil-A intends to open more locations in the city, surrounding boroughs, and Long Island as part of an East Coast expansion plan over the coming years. The company’s commitment to the New York area also extends beyond its stores. Chick-fil-A said it will source the majority of its fresh produce for its salads from local farms in New York and New Jersey, its fresh bread from Automatic Rolls of New Jersey, and its flat bread from Brooklyn’s Damascus Bakery.