Hundreds camp out for Chick-fil-A opening
Photo courtesy city of Norwalk
NORWALK – One hundred hungry and faithful Chick-fil-A fans camped out in front of Norwalk’s newest food location, eager to get their hands on a free year’s supply of chicken.
As part of their grand opening, Chick-fil-A enticed committed patrons with a full year of free Chick-fil-A if they could be one of the first 100 people in line when the doors opened on Thursday.
“We do this at most of our grand openings,” said owner and operator Farid Khansarinia. “Folks camp out for 24 hours, they stay here. We feed them through the day, we have games, we have events, and we try to make it a really fun environment.”
One of the campers, Rachel Kirylo, 20 from La Habra, was number 31 in line. She arrived at 4:20 am the day before the opening. She said she planned to share her reward with those close to her.
“It’s been fun,” said Kirylo. “I’m probably going to get sick of Chick-Fil-A, so after a while I’m probably going to start buying my friends Chick-Fil-A.”
Brenda Martinez, 58 from Norwalk, came out significantly later than Kirylo and was still able to secure spot 86 in line.
“I’ve been in line for events that are opening, but never a campout,” said Martinez. “My kids were like ‘Mom, do it! Every week you can go to Chick-Fil-A. So, I said OK, just drop me off. They went and they got me a tent and here I am.”
Martinez also added that she was happy to see the restaurant come to the community.
“It’s important that we have good things for the kids to eat more than all the other junk that is out there, all the junk food.”
Campers were woken up at around 5:15 am on Thursday to line up for the festivities.
Khansarinia says that the new restaurant is “here to build relationships.”
“The City of Norwalk has been fantastic to work with; City of Santa Fe Springs same thing,” said Khansarinia. “We’re delighted to be here, we’re delighted to serve the community. My vision for the restaurant for the restaurant is to be the most influential restaurant in the city of Norwalk. We want to create a great place where that comes together.”
Chick-fil-A is located at 12555 Imperial Highway, at Bloomfield Avenue.