Tuesday, December 12, 2023

[ALERT] Chick-fil-A Closing Longstanding Sandy Springs Restaurant

Chick-fil-A will close its longstanding Sandy Springs restaurant this week after 30 years in business.  The Atlanta-based company plans to scrape & rebuild the restaurant on its current parcel - 5925 Roswell Road - and reopen it next summer.  

According to Fulton County tax records, the popular fast food chicken chain occupies a .60 acre lot with a restaurant spanning 4,646 square feet that was built in 1993.  

The Chick-fil-A will close as of December 14, according to a Facebook announcement from local owner/operator, Lawson Bailey.  There has been no formal announcement as to what improvements are planned for or how large the new restaurant will be.  

The Sandy Springs restaurant and its iconic Chick-fil-A curve and 90s era building was on our mental "endangered list" and its demolition comes as little surprise given what the company has done in recent years to similar age, and even newer restaurants, around Atlanta. 

It's incredibly disappointing to see so many cool, distinctive restaurant buildings - whether current like Chick-fil-A, McDonald's or Arby's or past like Burger Chef - replaced with monotonous boxy buildings.  

Chick-fil-A's buildings were once so unique they were featured prominently on some of the company's ties.  The restaurants the chain is building now could be stripped of their logo and most people would not know whether the building was a Chick-fil-a, a burger joint or a bank! 

ToNeTo Atlanta previously covered several of the company's scrape & rebuild projects including the restaurant at North Druid Hills and Briarcliff Road near what is now the City of Brookhaven.  The Briarcliff restaurant, which when it opened in 1986 was the brand's first freestanding unit to carry the Chick-fil-A moniker, closed in 2017 and reopened in early 2018 after being completely rebuilt.  

In the years since the Briarcliff rebuild, the company has completed other scrape & rebuilds on the restaurant's existing parcels in Chamblee, Douglasville, Roswell, Norcross, Smyrna and Lilburn, among others.  Other similar age locations in Marietta, Snellville, Gainesville and Tucker, among others, were rebuilt on other nearby parcels.  The company has also completed rebuild projects on newer locations including 2000-era restaurants on Satellite Boulevard in Duluth and will soon reopen their Peachtree Road restaurant in South Buckhead where the new restaurant occupies a combined larger parcel.  

Chick-fil-A restaurants on Buford Highway in Doraville and Memorial Drive in Stone Mountain, as well as a Dwarf House on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth are among the remaining Atlanta area locations most at risk of being rebuilt and or relocated.  

Are you sad to see this vintage Chick-fil-A replaced with a new restaurant?  What is your favorite Chick-fil-A menu item?  What do you think of the restaurant buildings of today?

Please share your thoughts below.  

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm almost surprised that CFA hasn't contracted with some company to essentially create an entirely pre-fab/manufactured building kit that can be built in a week or so. There are high end manufactured houses that have a very modern/boxy type of look, similar to the boxy look being adopted by new fast food places.

Kevin Keith said...

Love that Chick-Fil-A and the store team is fantastic. No, I'm not at all sad to see the 'vintage' design scrapped. In the US, we've allowed too many of our cities to be shaped by brands, not built for cohesiveness or beauty. I actually think their new store design will **HOPEFULLY** try and be more pedestrian minded as Sandy Springs is trying to establish a true 'downtown' corridor on Roswell Road that is more connected and walkable.

Anonymous said...

Chik fil ayyyy heyyyy

Anonymous said...

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/chick-fil-a-goes-modular-with-offsite-restaurant-rebuild/588893/

Anonymous said...

They have . All the walls are pre fabed on the "new" ones. Watch one go up and you'll see.

Anonymous said...

Although I know sometimes things need to be updated / modernized I hate it that here in the Atlanta area in particular we always seem to tear down history and build something with no personality or charm at all.. having grown up here and living near the Greenbriar location I’ve been a part of CFA for over 50 years and I love the history if it’s birth.. I think Truitt would as well!!

Anonymous said...

oh, that is interesting that they've gone modular. It makes sense of course (certainly it hastens the construction timeline I would think). --firstposter

RayAtL said...

CFA should tear down and rebuild their owner’s homophobic attitudes.

Anonymous said...

Nice

Anonymous said...

No. Their right to freedom of speech. Don’t like it, don’t go there. Cheshire Bridge Rd calls you ;-)

Anonymous said...

Yes, let’s hope that it will set a new standard for a building that has charm and character in sandy springs!

Anonymous said...

Hopefully it will be more attractive than the last.

Anonymous said...

They’re supposed to be building a CFA on Cheshire Bridge in the old Regions Bank, per this blog. So good! Let it call all our names! Cluck cluck

Anonymous said...

There was nothing wrong with the chick fil a.. but I personally don't care as long ad they aren't getting rid of chick fil a in sandy springs all together. Also they should please bring back the playplace, my daughter and ber friends would have so many playdates there!!!

Anonymous said...

As long as they rebuild it.. who cares what they make it look like chick fil a is the bomb.com!!! They need to bring back the playplace too... then they would literally ALWAYS be busy though^-^

Anonymous said...

I was the first person hired at that location in 1993 lol

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