Chicken Salad Chick is expanding, and not just its customers' waistlines.
Simply Southern Restaurant Group, the franchiser of Chicken Salad Chick, announced Aug. 22 that 18 new locations of the restaurant will be opening.
"We have witnessed increasing customer demand for Chicken Salad Chick since the opening of our first takeout restaurant in 2008," said Chicken Salad Chick owner Stacy Brown in a press release.
"The fact that our own customers want to own their own Chicken Salad Chick is affirmation for us that we are touching lives. And that is our goal every day."
With new locations in Alabama, Florida and Georgia, the new Chicken Salad Chick restaurants will expand the 15 original recipes of chicken salad to a larger customer base.
Auburn area locations are on Opelika Road near Dean Road, down South College Street and on Frederick Road in Opelika.
This new customer base includes Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Dothan, Valdosta, Ga., Columbus, Ga. and Tallahassee, Fla.
Debbie Mossburg, vice president of marketing for Simply Southern Restaurant Group, said some of the new restaurants will be opening shortly, some even during the opening weeks of football season.
"We're looking at Montgomery to be open sometime in late September, early October," Mossburg said. "We're looking at Columbus to be open early-to-mid-October and then Tuscaloosa mid-October to the first of November."
Two of the five planned Birmingham stores are expected to be opened before the end of the year, Mossburg said.
"We're taking the concept and growing it outside of Auburn," Mossburg said. "The owners, Stacy and Kevin Brown, had so many requests from people coming through Auburn for the chicken salad."
Mossburg said the Chicken Salad Chick's secret recipes, different flavors and food preparation contribute to the great taste of the food.
"They're fresh ingredients and it's handmade daily," Mossburg said. "We love the fact that there are so many different types of chicken salad you can pick from."
Anastasia Papastefan, senior in dietetics, works at Chicken Salad Chick and said the customers are why she loves working there.
"I started working there in March, and everyone was so welcoming to me," Papastefan said. "Chicken Salad Chick's customers are very loyal, and they obviously really love their chicken salad."
Mossburg and her husband, as well as all of the new franchise owners, became involved with the restaurant after an enjoyable experience.
"All of our franchisees have wanted to bring it back to their hometown," Mossburg said. "So it's just extending the reach of Chicken Salad Chick beyond Auburn and Opelika's boundaries."
Mossburg said she thinks Chicken Salad Chick has done so well in Auburn because students enjoy the comfort and taste of home cooking the restaurants provide.
"Chicken salad is something that almost everyone likes," Mossburg said. "I think that's what people enjoy when they go there and get that good taste of home."
Chicken Salad Chick has even more plans for expansion.
They plan to grow regionally and hope to have 200 stores across the United States in five years, Mossburg said.
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