87 Fun Facts About Chick-fil-A

Truett Cathy's first restaurant, the 1946 Dwarf Grill, took its name from what?

Its small size: the diner Cathy opened with his brother in 1946 had only ten counter stools and a handful of tables, yet it stayed open around the clock.

In which Atlanta suburb did Truett Cathy open his first restaurant in 1946?

Hapeville, next to Atlanta's airport, was home to the 1946 Dwarf Grill, which drew much of its early trade from workers at the Ford assembly plant nearby.

Before Chick-fil-A had any restaurants, its sandwich was sold at which stadium in Texas when it opened in 1965?

The Astrodome. For three years the sandwich was licensed to other outlets, the new domed stadium's stands among them, until the first Chick-fil-A opened in an Atlanta mall in 1967.

Chick-fil-A's first restaurant opened in 1967 in the food court of which Atlanta mall?

Greenbriar Mall, one of Atlanta's first enclosed malls, gave Chick-fil-A its start as a pioneer of food-court dining; the restaurant served for 56 years before closing in May 2023.

What is the capital 'A' at the end of Chick-fil-A's name meant to signify?

The capital A stands for Grade A top-quality chicken; the 'fil' part plays on how Americans say 'filet', so the whole name is a boast about a top-grade chicken fillet.

What did Truett Cathy find in 1961 that cooked a chicken fillet as fast as a hamburger?

A pressure fryer. Cathy had run his diner for 15 years when he found one that cooked a boneless chicken breast as quickly as a burger, and it was six more before the first Chick-fil-A opened.

From 1964 to 1967 the Chick-fil-A sandwich was licensed to over fifty other eateries, including which breakfast chain?

Waffle House, another Georgia-born chain, sold the sandwich under licence in the 1960s; by one account it outsold the chain's own dishes before the arrangement ended.

Chick-fil-A's first restaurant, opened in 1967, was about the size of what?

A two-car garage. The mall counter covered just 384 square feet, and the chain stayed almost entirely inside shopping malls for 19 years, opening its first stand-alone restaurant only in 1986.

On which day of the week is every Chick-fil-A restaurant closed?

Every Chick-fil-A closes on Sunday, a rule Truett Cathy set at his first diner in 1946 after years of working seven days a week in 24-hour restaurants.

In 2007 Chick-fil-A's cows were inducted into a Walk of Fame on which New York street?

Madison Avenue. Its Advertising Walk of Fame honoured a herd dreamed up in 1995 by The Richards Group, an agency based far from New York, in Dallas.

On what did Chick-fil-A's 'Eat Mor Chikin' cows first appear in 1995?

Billboard. A pair of cows was shown painting the misspelled plea on an Atlanta sign; their first radio commercial followed a year later.

What breed of dairy cow stars in Chick-fil-A's advertising?

Holstein. The black-and-white dairy cows run their whole campaign as an act of self-preservation: eat chicken, they plead, instead of us.

Doodles, Chick-fil-A's original chicken mascot, survives today as which part of the company's logo?

The letter C. Doodles fronted the chain until the cows took over its advertising in 1995, and he still stands in for the first letter of its name.

Why did Chick-fil-A once temporarily halt its 'Eat Mor Chikin' ads?

A mad cow disease scare. The company did not want to seem to be cashing in on a food-safety panic, so it shelved the campaign for a time before bringing its cows back.

Which long-running piece of cow merchandise did Chick-fil-A retire at the end of 2018?

Calendar. Each edition came with monthly offers of free food, and the chain dropped it to steer regulars to the rewards in its mobile app instead.

Chick-fil-A's Original Chicken Sandwich is cooked in 100 percent refined what?

Peanut oil. The company says its oil is so heavily refined that the proteins are stripped out, and it notes that the FDA does not count highly refined oils as major food allergens.

What garnish comes as standard on Chick-fil-A's Original Chicken Sandwich?

Two dill pickle slices. Truett Cathy had diners at his restaurant taste-test versions until he settled on the recipe in 1964; lettuce, tomato and cheese come only on the Deluxe.

For more than 30 years, Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy and his wife Jeannette opened their home to whom?

Foster children. The Cathys took them in for more than three decades, and his WinShape Foundation went on to open a string of foster homes of its own.

Chick-fil-A's waffle-cut potato fries are cooked in which oil?

Chick-fil-A's waffle-cut fries are cooked in canola oil, not the oil used for the chicken, and are finished with a sprinkle of sea salt.

Which item have some Chick-fil-A restaurants sold during Lent?

Fish sandwich. Because many Christians give up meat during Lent, the chicken chain promoted a seasonal fish entrée in some years, though it has since stopped offering one.

As of 2018, what was the most-ordered item on Chick-fil-A's menu?

Waffle fries topped the chain's 2018 ranking of its most-ordered items; soft drinks came second, and the Original Chicken Sandwich that made its name managed only fourth.

Chick-fil-A added which item in 1982, the year before McDonald's took its own version nationwide?

Chicken nuggets. Customers kept asking restaurant operators to cut the sandwich fillet into bite-sized pieces, so in 1982 the chain began selling them in boxes of six.

Which Chick-fil-A dipping sauce was one of the original three introduced in 1984?

Polynesian, a sweet-and-sour sauce, was one of the chain's first three dips in 1984, and forty years later it was still the second most-ordered of them all.

In 2014 Chick-fil-A pledged that within five years its chicken would be raised without what?

Antibiotics. The chain met the pledge in 2019, then relaxed it in 2024 to rule out only antibiotics important to human medicine, saying it needed to keep its chicken supply steady.

Chick-fil-A's namesake sauce was born when a worker accidentally mixed which sauce into a restaurant's homemade honey mustard?

Barbecue sauce. Virginia restaurant operator Hugh Fleming had whipped up the honey mustard for his customers in the early 1980s, and he added the barbecue once the accident proved a hit.

Which dip did customers order more than any other in 2024?

Chick-fil-A Sauce topped the chain's 2024 ranking of its dipping sauces, with Sweet & Spicy Sriracha finishing last of the seven.

In 2023 Chick-fil-A began testing its first meat-free sandwich, built around which vegetable?

Cauliflower. A filet cut from a whole head was marinated, breaded and cooked like the chicken, after guests told the chain they wanted more vegetables; tests began in Denver, Charleston and Greensboro.

Which bowl game has carried Chick-fil-A's name as title sponsor since the 1990s?

Peach Bowl. From 2006 to 2013 the fruit vanished and the game was simply the Chick-fil-A Bowl; the peach returned in 2014, the year the game joined the College Football Playoff.

Chick-fil-A restaurants in which US territory serve coffee grown and roasted entirely on the island?

Puerto Rico. The chain arrived there in 2022, and its island restaurants train staff as baristas to hand-brew lattes and cortados sold at no other Chick-fil-A.

What had Truett Cathy just finished doing when he opened his first diner near Atlanta in 1946?

Serving in the US Army. Back from his Second World War service, he and his brother turned a house into a diner that stayed open 24 hours a day.

Since 2017 the bowl game Chick-fil-A sponsors has been played at which Atlanta stadium?

Mercedes-Benz Stadium took over from the Georgia Dome next door, which had hosted the game for 25 seasons and was demolished in November 2017.

Besides its weekly day off, Chick-fil-A closes every US restaurant on Thanksgiving and which other holiday?

Christmas Day. The company says the closure lets its restaurant teams spend the holiday with family and friends, the same thinking that lies behind its weekly day of rest.

Which member of the Cathy family became Chick-fil-A's chief executive in 2021?

Andrew Cathy, the founder's grandson, became CEO in November 2021, taking the company into its third generation of family leadership.

When Truett Cathy retired in November 2013, which son took over as Chick-fil-A's chairman and CEO?

Dan Cathy became chairman and CEO in November 2013; he handed the chief executive's job on in late 2021 but stayed chairman of the board.

Who owns Chick-fil-A?

Its founding family. Truett Cathy refused to take the company public, and its shares still cannot be bought on any stock market.

In 2025, what initial fee did Chick-fil-A ask of a would-be franchise operator?

Chick-fil-A asked just $10,000 from a would-be Operator in 2025 because the company keeps ownership of the restaurant; selection is highly competitive and training takes months.

About how much did the average Chick-fil-A restaurant take in during 2024, the most of any big US fast-food chain?

$7.5 million. That was nearly twice the takings of an average McDonald's, and it came from restaurants that stay shut one day in every seven.

By 2019 US sales, Chick-fil-A ranked third among restaurant chains, behind McDonald's and which other company?

Starbucks, with about $21 billion in US sales, sat between McDonald's at about $40 billion and Chick-fil-A at $11.3 billion, which had climbed past Subway, Taco Bell and Burger King to get there.

As of 2025, Vermont and which other state were the only two without a Chick-fil-A restaurant?

Alaska. The chain had restaurants in the other 48 states, and it had opened across the border in Canada while both holdouts still had none.

In late 2025 Chick-fil-A opened its first restaurant in Asia in which country?

Singapore. The company committed $75 million over ten years to the launch and chose an owner-operator born and raised there to run the restaurant.

Chick-fil-A's 'my pleasure' catchphrase was inspired by an employee of what kind of business?

A high-end hotel. Truett Cathy was so struck when an employee there answered his thanks with 'my pleasure' that he asked his own staff to say it whenever a customer thanked them.

Which word completes Chick-fil-A's corporate purpose, 'to glorify God by being a faithful ___'?

Steward. Truett Cathy and his executive committee wrote the purpose in 1982, when sales were falling and the company had to decide what it stood for.

At the age of eight, Truett Cathy started his first business, selling which drink door to door?

Coca-Cola. He bought six-packs for a quarter and sold the bottles for a nickel each, and found they sold better once he chilled them on ice.

Which words complete the title of Truett Cathy's book 'It's Better to Build Boys Than ___'?

'It's Better to Build Boys Than Mend Men' drew on Cathy's five decades teaching a church class for teenage boys; his other titles include 'Eat Mor Chikin: Inspire More People'.

At 92, Truett Cathy opened a restaurant in Fayetteville, Georgia, inspired by his visits to which state?

Hawaii. Truett's Luau, opened in 2013, serves island dishes beside the usual chicken, and it was the last restaurant Cathy opened before his death the following year.

Which word completed the 'Eat More ___' T-shirts that drew a 2011 cease-and-desist letter from Chick-fil-A?

Vermont screen printer Bo Muller-Moore's 'Eat More Kale' shirts drew the 2011 demand; he fought it and won a federal trademark for the phrase in 2014.

Which fried-chicken chain's 2019 fillet sandwich launch, rivalling Chick-fil-A, kicked off the 'sandwich wars'?

Popeyes launched its chicken sandwich in August 2019 and sold out nationwide within two weeks, setting off a copycat rush across the industry.

Chick-fil-A's sandwich began with chicken breast pieces that were the wrong size for which customer's meal trays?

An airline had ordered boneless breasts to fit its in-flight trays, and the supplier offered Truett Cathy the pieces that failed the size test.

Where at Chick-fil-A's headquarters is the original recipe for its chicken sandwich said to be kept?

In a locked vault at the Support Center sits Truett Cathy's unchanged recipe, and the company refuses to say who knows the combination.

Which rapper name-checks Chick-fil-A's weekly day of rest in the chorus of a hit 2019 song?

Kanye West turned the chain's closing day into a chorus, and the single reached number 17 on the US Hot 100 despite poor reviews.

Which parent-and-child evening at Chick-fil-A restaurants did one Georgia family attend every year for two decades?

Daddy-Daughter Date Night became a yearly ritual for a Georgia police officer and his three girls from 2000, with a strict no-phones rule.

Chick-fil-A's Cathy family co-founded Georgia's Trilith film studio, long the main filming base of which company?

Marvel Studios shot Ant-Man there first in 2014 and stayed for blockbusters including Black Panther and Avengers: Endgame.

Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy liked to celebrate business milestones by dancing with which toy?

A hula hoop came out whenever the company hit a milestone, part of the playful streak of a founder who loved practical jokes.

Chick-fil-A opened on its weekly closing day in December 2017 to feed travelers stranded at Atlanta's airport by what?

A power outage had left passengers stuck at Hartsfield-Jackson, so the chain broke its own rule to cook meals for them.

What disaster struck Truett Cathy's second restaurant, forcing the Chick-fil-A founder to cook in the parking lot?

A fire burned the place down, yet he kept trading by grilling food outdoors, a story the company still tells about his persistence.

Chick-fil-A's September 2019 opening, met by both long lines and protesters, brought the chain to which Canadian city?

Toronto got the chain's first franchised Canadian restaurant, and the company said it planned at least 15 around the city within five years.

Which presidential candidate shared a 2012 Liberty University honorary-degree ceremony with Chick-fil-A's Truett Cathy?

Mitt Romney told the graduates his campaign came to a stop whenever it spotted a Chick-fil-A, calling the sandwiches comfort food on the primary trail.

Which former Arkansas governor rallied supporters with a Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day during the chain's 2012 boycott?

Mike Huckabee called the day to counter a boycott over the company's stance on same-sex marriage, and many restaurants reported record crowds.

Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy, whose faith shaped company policy, belonged to which Protestant denomination?

Southern Baptist teaching ran through his life: he taught a weekly Bible class to teenagers at his Jonesboro church for more than fifty years.

As a teenager, future Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy earned money for his family by delivering what?

Newspapers taught him service: he said he placed each one as carefully as if it were going to the governor's mansion.

The original Chick-fil-A Dwarf House is known for a tiny extra front door painted which color?

Red paint marks the child-sized door, which survived the 2022 rebuild along with the dwarf mural and the original counter stools.

Chick-fil-A's free family app of shows, games and podcasts, launched in November 2024, is called Chick-fil-A what?

Play carries an original animated series, Legends of Evergreen Hills, and a scripted podcast, and the chain made the whole app free.

Chick-fil-A pledged in 2016, then abandoned in 2025, a promise to buy only which kind of eggs by 2026?

Cage-free eggs were dropped as a goal when the company cited industry conditions and bird flu as barriers.

Which name did Chick-fil-A's Truett Cathy and his wife Jeannette give the charitable foundation they began in 1984?

WinShape comes from its aim of shaping winners, and it grew from a small scholarship program into summer camps and marriage retreats.

Which self-help bestseller did Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy name as a great influence while growing up?

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill, later had an echo in the five motivational and business books Cathy went on to write himself.

Truett Cathy's first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, drew many customers from which carmaker's nearby assembly plant?

Ford opened its Atlanta Assembly plant in 1947, a year after the grill, and its workers were regulars for years.

At Truett's Grill, the Chick-fil-A founder's 1950s-style Georgia restaurants, what runs through the dining room?

A model train circles the room as a nod to Truett Cathy's love of transportation, with motorcycles hung on the walls beside it.

Which Georgia-based insurer replaced Chick-fil-A in 2023 as sponsor of Atlanta's season-opening Kickoff Game?

Aflac took over naming rights to a game Chick-fil-A had backed since its first edition at the Georgia Dome in 2008.

From 2010, the winner of the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game received a trophy named for which old piece of football gear?

A leather helmet gave the prize its name, the Old Leather Helmet, first handed over when LSU beat North Carolina 30–24.

The Chick-fil-A College Football Hall of Fame opened in Atlanta in 2014 after leaving which Indiana city?

South Bend had drawn about 60,000 visitors a year against forecasts of more than 150,000, and the museum closed there in 2012.

Waitresses at Truett Cathy's Dwarf Grill once collected a young co-worker's college fund from customers in what?

A mayonnaise jar marked for Eddie White's college fund sat on the counter, and when it fell short Truett Cathy wrote a check for the rest.

In Chick-fil-A's cow advertising, what is the name of the fictional beef-selling chain the cows keep battling?

Circus Burger first appeared in a 2003 TV spot, and in 2019 the cows even gatecrashed a staff meeting in its boardroom.

In January 2025 Chick-fil-A returned to the UK with a restaurant in Lisburn, in which part of the country?

Northern Ireland hosted the Lisburn opening, at an Applegreen motorway service area on the M1, five years after short-lived pilots in Britain had closed.

Which rival chicken chain ranked second to Chick-fil-A in average sales per restaurant in 2022?

Raising Cane's averaged $5.44 million a restaurant against Chick-fil-A's $6.71 million, a lead earned in only six trading days a week.

With each new US restaurant it opens, Chick-fil-A gives $25,000 to a food bank in which national hunger-relief network?

Feeding America food banks have received more than $20 million this way since 2020, with matching gifts in local currency for openings abroad.

Which Chick-fil-A program, made official in 2012, sends restaurants' surplus food to local shelters?

Shared Table grew out of one Knoxville operator's habit of sending unsold sandwiches to a rescue mission's soup kitchens.

Chick-fil-A's annual grants to nonprofits, created in 2015 to honor founder Truett Cathy, carry which name?

True Inspiration Awards can be worth as much as $350,000 each, and members of the chain's loyalty app vote on regional winners.

Chick-fil-A's Brake Room, opened for the winter of 2023, offered which workers a free place to warm up?

Delivery couriers could park their bikes indoors, charge their phones and grab a coffee by showing a delivery-app profile at the door.

As a boy, future Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy helped in the kitchen of which business run by his mother?

A boarding house kitchen gave him his first taste of cooking for paying guests, years before he opened a restaurant of his own.

What does Chick-fil-A's drive-thru innovation team build at its headquarters to try out new ideas?

Full-size mockup lanes let real customers drive their own vehicles through an idea before it reaches thousands of restaurants.

Visitors on the Backstage Tour of Chick-fil-A's headquarters see Truett Cathy's office and his collection of what?

Vintage cars from his classic collection are a highlight of the guided walk, which also takes in a company history museum.

Chick-fil-A's 2019 UK pilot, ended after a six-month trial amid protests, was in The Oracle mall in which English town?

Reading's shopping centre declined to extend the lease beyond the trial period, and the restaurant shut in March 2020.

Truett Cathy's younger son Donald, a longtime Chick-fil-A executive, is better known by which nickname?

Bubba Cathy ran a mall Chick-fil-A in Morrow before college and was named a senior vice president of the company in 1995.

Which youth organization honored Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy with its Silver Buffalo Award?

Boy Scouts of America gave him the award for his service to youth, one of many honors that also included the Horatio Alger Award.

On the six days a week it traded, Truett Cathy's 1946 Dwarf Grill kept which unusual opening hours?

Round the clock service meant Cathy and his brother Ben split each day into alternating 12-hour shifts.

In 2008 Chick-fil-A became one of the first fast-food chains to rid its menu entirely of what?

Trans fats went first, and five years later the company said it was also removing high-fructose corn syrup and artificial dyes.

As a schoolboy in the 1960s, Truett Cathy's elder son, later Chick-fil-A's chairman, made which ads for the Dwarf House?

Radio commercials gave the future chairman his start years before he earned a business degree and joined the company full-time in 1975.