"I'm number 94!" Lincoln County School Board member Kirk Herbertson proclaimed Wednesday night. He was among those who camped out in the parking lot awaiting the opening of Lincolnton's new Chick-fil-A at 1904 E. Main St.
The restaurant opened at 6 AM Thursday morning, but as a part of the promotion for its opening, some 'campers' set up tents in the parking lot at 6 AM Wednesday. By 7 o'clock Wednesday morning, 39 had arrived. By late afternoon, the number had swelled to 78. When the restaurant opened Thursday morning, the restaurant gave prizes to 110 people who had stayed part or all of the 24-hour campout.
The Lincolnton-Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for the new Chick-fil-A at 9 AM Thursday, but the restaurant was already packed with customers not long after the campers dismantled their tents and cleared the parking lot.
Many Lincolnton residents had long expressed the desire for a Chick-fil-A for their town; the Student Advisory Committee to the City Council had prepared a presentation in 2015 to try to convince the company that Lincolnton would be a good market.
Lincolnton and Lexington, NC, were chosen as test markets for cities that don't necessarily meet what the company had considered its demographic necessity. Lincoln County got its first Chick-fil-A in Denver over a year ago and finally, the new restaurant got its approval from the City Council last November.
Next door to the new Chick-fil-A, the new location of Keever Pharmacy, actually approved well before the Chick-fil-A, is also under construction.
Rumors about other restaurant locations in Lincolnton are mixed--some may be true, some are not. John Gilleland, who is offering the old Harris Teeter location at the intersection of E. Main St. and Lithia Inn Road told us the rumors that Olive Garden will open there are not true. Gilleland also said there's been no news on the former Popeye's location; but city officials did tell us that they have had an inquiry about the former Sonic location. A Charlotte developer has been looking at that location. Preliminary plans would demolish the building and a new strip of shops would take their place--similar to those on the other side of the parking lot in front of Fatz Cafe. One of the businesses in the new strip would be a Starbucks.
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