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Ceramic bowl of creamy chicken salad with grapes and pecans on a sunny patio table beside a folding beach chair and a small numbered ticket stub
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Food

Free Chicken Salad for a Year? Pack a Chair

Chicken Salad Chick opens its first Sarasota County spot tomorrow at Fruitville Farms, and the first 100 people in line walk away with a year’s worth of free chicken salad. I have already mentally packed snacks for the line.

· 2-min read

I do not usually set an alarm for chicken salad. Tomorrow I might.

Chicken Salad Chick is opening its first Sarasota County restaurant on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at 6650 Fruitville Road in the Fruitville Farms shopping center, just east of I-75. Franchise owner Karen Jordan already runs the Bradenton and Parrish spots under Manasota Chick, LLC. Sarasota gets the third one, and the brand is rolling out the kind of opening-week bribes that turn reasonable adults into people who bring camping chairs to a strip plaza.

The Year of the Scoop

Here is the part that rewired my calendar: the first 100 guests in line on opening day win free chicken salad for a year. Guest No. 1 (line starts for the 10:30 a.m. open) gets one free large Quick Chick every week for twelve months. Guests 2 through 100 get one free large Quick Chick per month for a year. You have to stay in line, download the app (no Wi-Fi on site, so load it at home), buy a meal with two sides or the equivalent once doors open, and enter a code. Leave the line and your glory goes to the next person with better snacks.

I am calling this the Annual Chicken Salad Subscription, except instead of a credit card you pay with patience and early-morning optimism. Bring water. Bring a friend who will hold your spot for bathroom emergencies. Bring the energy you normally save for Black Friday.

Opening-week loot continues

The giveaways do not stop Tuesday. Per the same announcement:

  • Wednesday, Sept. 30: first 50 meal-with-two-sides buyers get a free 16-oz Tervis tumbler
  • Thursday, Oct. 1: first 50 get a free red grocery tote
  • Friday, Oct. 2: first 50 get a free large Chick cooler
  • Saturday, Oct. 3: first 50 get a free large Quick Chick on their next visit

Sports broadcaster Dick Vitale is also swinging by the Friends & Family and ribbon-cutting events on behalf of the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Signed books, charity shout-outs, and yes, chicken salad. A very Florida Tuesday.

What’s in the bowl

If you somehow miss the line lottery, the menu still has a dozen-plus made-from-scratch chicken salad flavors, plus sides, soups, sandwiches and desserts. Hours for the Fruitville Farms location: Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Dine in, patio, takeout, delivery and catering. Details and fine print live on the PR Newswire release and chickensaladchick.com.

I will be the one in the folding chair treating a scoop of chicken salad like a season ticket. See you in Fruitville. Bring grapes. Or don’t. I’m not your mother.

— Marina

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