15 Things You Didn't Know About Chick-Fil-A
You know that it's closed on Sundays, but did you know about the secret menu?
1. Chick-fil-A has a secret menu.
According to #HacktheMenu, the secret menu includes a buffalo chicken sandwich (just ask for buffalo sauce on your spicy chicken sandwich), a root beer float, and at some locations, a blueberry cheesecake shake (ask them to blend a piece of blueberry cheesecake into a vanilla shake) or even a chicken quesadilla (at some locations in the Southwest).
2. Despite Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy's disparaging comments against marriage equality in 2012, the company's profits have actually gone up.
Chick-fil-A's profits went from $4.1 billion in 2011 to $4.6 billion in 2012 (the year the scandal initially broke) and then up to $5 billion in 2013.
3. You can buy a Chick-fil-A–branded MP3 player in the Chick-fil-A store for $29.95. Really.
It's 4GB, comes in either blue or silver, and can apparently play music or audiobooks for three to five hours.
4. Chick-fil-A invented the fast food chicken sandwich.
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In the early '60s, Truett Cathy was brought a shipment of chicken breasts that had been deemed too large to be served as airline food. He came up with a quick way to prepare chicken for shift workers, and in 1964 introduced the Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich.
5. The capital "A" in Chick-fil-A is capitalized on purpose. It's meant to symbolize "top quality" or "Grade A."
6. The Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich was originally known as the chicken steak sandwich, but the name was changed because it was too general to trademark.
7. Over the past few years, Chick-fil-A has been trying to make its ingredients healthier... but has been keeping it relatively quiet over fears that customers might notice a change in taste.
Chick-fil-A has been gradually getting rid of high-fructose corn syrup, artificial dyes, antibiotics, and some preservatives from its foods. This change apparently came as a result of Foodbabe.com writer Vani Hari's efforts to promote the change in the media.
8. The amount of chicken sandwiches Chick-fil-A sold in 2010 would span a distance just shy of the Earth's circumference if you laid them from end to end.
That's 282 million sandwiches spanning 21,000 miles, to be more precise.
9. Chick-fil-A's namesake sauce is actually a combination of honey mustard, barbeque, and ranch sauce.
10. If Chick-fil-A nuggets were bricks, it would take about two years to sell enough to build another Great Wall of China.
Based on the 2010 nugget sales.
11. The Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich was originally developed for a different restaurant.
Chick-fil-A founder Truett Cathy's original restaurant was called "The Dwarf Grill"; it was only after the success of the Chick-fil-A sandwich that Cathy started Chick-fil-A as a restaurant in 1967.
12. Chick-fil-A is the largest purchaser of Sunkist lemons in the world.
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Chick-fil-A used 200 million lemons to make into lemonade in 2013.
13. It took Chick-fil-A 11 years to develop the grill for making its grilled chicken sandwich.
They tested over 1,200 different recipes before deciding on the winner.
14. According to Chick-fil-A, the recipe for the original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich remains locked in a safe in its Atlanta headquarters.
Also according to Chick-fil-A, it has not changed in 50 years.
15. Whenever a new Chick-fil-A restaurant opens, the first 100 customers receive "a year's worth"* of Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich meals.
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If more than 100 patrons show up between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m., there is a drawing. One St. Petersburg, Fla., man, Richard Corey, has stood in line for at least 110 Chick-fil-A restaurant grand openings.
*According to Chick-fil-A, "A year's worth" is equal to 52 meals.