Chick-fil-A, the popular chicken-focused fast-food eatery, could be selling sandwiches and biscuits inside Mobile’s Government Plaza soon.
A memorandum of understanding between Mobile County and Chick-fil-A RSA, will be voted on by the Mobile County Commission on Monday. If commissioners approve, the restaurant could set up an additional distribution point (ADP) on the ground floor area of the downtown government building.
It would be the first time a chain has located inside the county-owned Government Plaza since Starbucks, which closed about a decade ago. A small convenience mart, serving hot dogs, has been the only remaining permanent food service inside Government Plaza.
“Everyone is excited about it,” said Mobile County Commissioner Connie Hudson. “You have to think about it, when you have 500 jurors who come in on some Monday’s, when they break for lunch, this will be a convenience for them to stay inside the building.”
The agreement is temporary, and allows Chick-fil-A to set up its operations for only one week, with the option to extend up to three additional weeks. Hudson said the hope is for a permanent relationship with Chick-fil-A inside Government Plaza.
Chick-fil-A will serve Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or until food is sold out.
The eatery will not cook on site, but will transport prepared food items from its only downtown location inside the RSA Battlehouse Hotel at 12 N. Royal St.
The menu is limited and includes the following:
Breakfast: Chick-fil-A biscuit $3.25, yogurt $4, orange juice $3 and an unspecified canned drink $2.
Lunch: Chick-fil-A sandwich 4.50, side salad $3.95, market salad $10, and a canned drink $2.
“Chick-fil-A has an additional distribution point model which they’ve done elsewhere where they have points set up with a limited menu,” said Hudson.
She said the concept could spark the potential of a food court inside Government Plaza, which first opened in 1995.
“I think there is the possibility that others, who have this type of model with additional distribution points, that if we wanted to look at a food court type of operation, that it would be something to work well with what Chick-fil-A is doing,” Hudson said.
The proposed agreement calls for Chick-fil-A to pay the county a commission in the amount of 10 percent of pre-tax sales. Payments will be made bi-weekly as Chick-fil-A’s sales cycles are closed, the agreement states.
“We’re not trying to make a big profit off of this,” Hudson said. “We’re trying to do it for convenience mostly, for our employees and for our jurors who filter here on a regular basis.”
Hudson said the food will be sold inside the former absentee election office, and that there will be ample seating.
Government Plaza once housed several restaurants, including Café 205, which was operated by Alec Naman Catering Inc., and closed in 2000.
There is plenty of competition for lunch business nearby, with a host of restaurants just a few blocks away on Dauphin and Royal streets.
Hudson said that Government Plaza has a lot of foot traffic, which should make the Chick-fil-A concept appealing. She said there are “at least” 600 employees inside the building that houses city, county and judicial governmental services. The addition of hundreds of jurors also increases the number of people who walk through the complex on a daily basis.
Chick-fil-A, based in Atlanta, is among the most popular fast-food chains in the U.S., but also has been subject to government scrutiny and criticism for the company’s supposed views opposing same-sex marriage.
The San Antonio City Council, on Thursday, rejected the inclusion of a Chick-fil-A inside the San Antonio International Airport after a councilman alleged that the company donated $1.8 million to organizations that discriminate against the LGBTQ community.
This story was updated at 4:59 p.m. on Friday, March 22, 2019, to clarify that Mobile County hopes to establish a more permanent relationship with Chick-fil-A following its temporary trial run at Government Plaza in Mobile.