Powdersville Chick-fil-A opening Jan. 8

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Chick-fil-A kicks off the new year with the opening of Powdersville’s first stand-alone Chick-fil-A® restaurant on Jan. 8, bringing 60 new jobs, the chance for 100 adults to win free Chick-fil-A meals for a year and the opportunity for the community to donate new children’s books that will benefit a local youth organization.

After 11 years and nearly $24 million in free food given away through 2014, Chick-fil-A’s “First 100” celebration continues to be the chain’s signature grand opening event which transforms the restaurant parking lot into a 24-hour community friendly party as the crowd awaits the opening.

The new restaurant, at 3420 Hwy. 153 in front of Walmart, will be one of the first of 2015 to host the First 100 event that will award more than $32,000 in free food. A digital offer card loaded with a one-year supply of free Chick-fil-A Meals will be given to each of the first 100 eligible adults, ages 18 and older with identification, in line when the doors open about 6 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 8. If more than 100 people are onsite when the line officially opens at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, then all 100 spots will be determined by a drawing held that morning with those selected needing to camp out for 24 hours to secure their spot. For complete rules, see Chick-fil-A First 100 Promotion.

Chick-fil-A believes in partnering with individuals and organizations that work to enrich education, literacy and youth. In that spirit, Chick-fil-A at Powdersville Operator Chad Saxon is collecting unused children’s books on Wednesday, Jan. 7 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to benefit a local youth organization.

Books collected during the grand opening celebration will be placed in a nearly three-foot Book House to serve as a free library exchange – allowing anyone to take a book after replacing it with one of their own. The Book House, created from old and thrown out wood, is one of several community programs and opportunities being made possible through the generous support of the Chick-fil-A Foundation (www.chick-fil-afoundation.org).

The opening of Powdersville’s Chick-fil-A restaurant will feature the chain’s newest interior and kitchen design and the new location can seat 149 in the dining room with additional outside patio seating.

The restaurant includes dual drive-thru ordering lanes to expand the chain’s award-winning drive-thru service, enabling motorists to place their orders at separate screens and then merge into a single lane to pay for and pick up their orders. With a majority of Chick-fil-A customers choosing to drive thru, the ability for two drivers to simultaneously order will mean quicker service.

Customers will be able to stay connected through the restaurant’s free Wi-Fi and parents will appreciate the indoor play area that includes an interactive section for toddlers. The restaurant is open Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., serving a full breakfast menu until 10:30 a.m. Like all Chick-fil-A restaurants, it will be closed on Sunday.

The Powdersville Chick-fil-A location is the fourth stand-alone restaurant to open in the region in the past nine months. South Carolina’s first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in August 1970 in Columbia’s Dutch Square Mall, with the Powdersville site becoming the 85th location in the state.

Saxon brings more than 11 years of entrepreneur experience to the Powdersville location, including three years as a Chick-fil-A Operator. He owned a dry cleaning business prior to becoming the Operator in January 2012 of the Duncan stand-alone Chick-fil-A restaurant from where he’s transferring.

Saxon graduated in communications from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, N.C., where he attended on a golf scholarship and met his wife, Dani, who was attending on a softball scholarship. The Saxons will be returning with their four children to the area where Chad, who graduated from Easley High School, grew up and his parents still live.

“Personalized customer service and freshly prepared food have been the hallmarks of Chick-fil-A since the day Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant,” said Saxon. “My team members and I are committed to those same ideas as we welcome our guests to our Powdersville restaurant and provide them with a remarkable experience.”

Perfecting a recipe his mother used in her Atlanta boarding house, Cathy first served his boneless breast-of-chicken sandwich, pressured cooked and served on a buttered bun with two crucial pickles, at his Dwarf Grill restaurant which opened in 1946 in Hapeville, Ga. It was the signature menu item when the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967 inside an Atlanta mall. Though joined by many other menu options over the years, the Chick-fil-A sandwich remains the centerpiece of the menu as the chain has grown to more than 1,892 restaurants in 41 states and Washington D.C.

The new Chick-fil-A in Powdersville is one of 88 new restaurants the chain plans to open across the country in 2015, creating more than 7,400 new jobs. Chick-fil-A continued to grow in 2014, increasing the number of new restaurants initially planned for the year with a total of 93 opening across the country.

For more information on the new Powdersville Chick-fil-A restaurant, visit www.chick-fil-a.com/powdersville or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chick-fil-A-of-Powdersville/368281463329008.