New York City is now the home of the world’s largest Chick-Fil-A restaurant, almost twice the size of its nearest competitor. Located in NYC’s Financial District at 144 Fulton Street, the restaurant is five stories high and encompasses 12,000 square feet.
Although the fast food restaurant is the tallest in the Chick-Fil-A chain, it’s also the narrowest at only 15 feet wide. It officially opened for business on Thursday, March 29, 2018.
Students at the nearby Manhattan campus of Pace University took to Twitter to express their excitement at having Chick-Fil-A as a new neighbor. Lines formed around the block on opening day.
The Chick-Fil-A’s three dining levels can seat up to 140 diners at a time. Visitors can view One World Trade Center from the rooftop terrace, although the terrace is only open to the public during the warm-weather months. Other features include a semi-private dining room for group events, floor-to-ceiling windows, and two kitchens.
The semi-private dining room also serves as a meeting room for Chick-Fil-A’s staff. It’s decked out with whiteboards and a cork board so it can be used for meetings.
The Lower Manhattan Chick-Fil-A location is operated by franchisee Luke Cook, who lives in downtown Manhattan and has worked with Chick-Fil-A in some capacity for more than a decade. The head of the design team was Nathaniel Cates. Cates and the design team intended the glass front of the restaurant to be a respectful homage to the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Ground Zero and the 9/11 Memorial are a short distance away from the Fulton Street location.
New York City has four other Chick-Fil-A locations. The franchise’s first New York restaurant opened in 2015. Chick-Fil-A is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
The new building will employ 150 people. In collaboration with the New York Common Pantry, this Chick-Fil-A location will participate in donating food to help feed the homeless. In addition, the Chick-Fil-A company continues to work with Feeding Children Everywhere, an organization that helps provide healthy food for children in food-insecure households.
144 Fulton Street, like other Chick-Fil-A locations, is open on Mondays through Saturdays. It’s the company’s policy not to open on Sundays so employees have time to spend with their families.
