Chick-fil-A opens in Parsippany. Meet the sleepy, hungry fans who lined up all night
PARSIPPANY — Bundled under blankets and settled into folding chairs at 1 a.m., the five local high schoolers were the first to arrive for the Thursday morning grand opening of the Chick-fil-A restaurant on Route 46.
Sleeping through the night around the corner from the entrance, they woke at about 6 a.m. − to discover nearly a dozen people standing in front of them.
"We heard there would be a big crowd," said Parsippany Hills High School senior Jacob Matthew.
"We thought we could get some rest," said his classmate, Samir Saha "But it didn't really work out."
Parsippany Chick-fil-A giveaways draw a crowd
Anticipating grand-opening giveaways, the students' plan was to be among the first 100 customers for the popular chicken chain's second franchise in Morris County. Five years earlier, 463 people were lined up at 5 a.m. for the opening of the Chick-fil-A in Morris Plains.
Thursday's debut wasn't quite that sensation. Still, about 30 people were on line as the Parsippany site launched, including Pedro Hernandez. The Parsippany resident never saw the students around the corner when he arrived around 5:30 a.m. with his children, Julissa and Joel. They ended up first at the front door when it swung open at 6:30 a.m.
"We heard they were going to give away things," Pedro said.
"Waffle Fries," Joel responded when asked about his favorites on the menu.
None of the early arrivals went away disappointed. Each received a gift card good for one free entree.
Route 46 redevelopment
The Parsippany store, the newest of the company's more than 3,000 North American locations, is expected to create about 115 jobs in the area, the Atlanta-based company said last week. It's part of a surge of redevelopment along Parsippany's Route 46 corridor, where a Topgolf franchise is also in the works and the old Empire Diner was recently sold to a developer for an as-yet unannounced project.
In the early hours on Thursday, staff outnumbered customers at the site. Parsippany franchise owner Charlie Atie said there were 40 new hires working the breakfast shift, supervised by 40 out-of-state trainers. More were expected to punch in before the anticipated lunch rush.
A woman who identified herself only as Latisha from Parsippany thanked Atie for opening "literally right around the corner" from her home. "We were so tired of driving to Chick-fil-A in Morris Plains. So we're super-happy about this," she told him.
Latisha was unsure of what to order at 6:45 a.m. "I've never done the breakfast before," she said. "I'm going to go with the chicken, egg and biscuit meal with a lemonade. Can't go wrong with that."
New chief of the coop
Atie, the former police chief in Prospect Park, said he was "very excited to serve the community" in Parsippany. He applied for a franchise shortly after retiring as chief in 2020 and was cleared as an owner last summer.
Since then, he's been training at various Chick-fil-A locations to learn the ins and outs of running the business.
The biggest lesson he learned? "Caring," he said.
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Chick-fil-A Parsippany address and hours
Located at 1180 Route 46 West, Chick-fil-A Parsippany will be open for pick-up, dine-in, drive-through and carry-out from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and drive-through until 10 p.m., Monday through Saturday. All locations are closed on Sunday for religious observance.
William Westhoven is a local reporter for DailyRecord.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: wwesthoven@dailyrecord.com
Twitter: @wwesthoven
This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Parsippany Chick-fil-A opening deals have fans pulling all-nighter
