Chicken Salad Chick is opening its first Sarasota County restaurant on September 29 at 6650 Fruitville Road in the Fruitville Farms shopping center, marking franchise owner Karen Jordan's third Southwest Florida location alongside her existing restaurants in Bradenton and Parrish. The 2,600-square-foot restaurant seats 52 guests and will offer dine-in, outdoor patio seating, takeout, third-party delivery and catering.
The grand opening includes a tiered giveaway built to reward the earliest arrivals: the first guest in line at 10:30 a.m. will win a free large chicken salad portion every week for a year, while guests two through 100 receive the same portion monthly for a year, redeemable through the Chicken Salad Chick app. Daily promotions continue through October 3, with the first 50 guests each day who make a qualifying purchase receiving free Tervis Tumblers, grocery totes or Chick Coolers depending on the day.
Sports broadcaster Dick Vitale, a longtime advocate for pediatric cancer research, will appear at the restaurant's pre-opening Friends & Family event and ribbon-cutting ceremony on behalf of the V Foundation for Cancer Research, the nonprofit founded by ESPN and the late Jim Valvano. Funds raised during the pre-opening event will benefit the foundation, and guests will have the chance to meet Vitale, purchase signed copies of his book and learn more about the Dick Vitale Gala, scheduled for May 7, 2027.
Karen Jordan called opening her third restaurant a genuinely exciting milestone, pointing to a meaningful past year that included providing free meals to children during a lapse in SNAP benefits and being named a finalist for Small Business of the Year in Manatee County by the local Chamber of Commerce. She said she and her team are driven by the brand's mission to spread joy, enrich lives and serve others, and that she's eager to bring that same experience to new guests in Sarasota County. Scott Deviney, CEO and President of Chicken Salad Chick, said Jordan's passion for serving others has been vital to the brand's growth in Southwest Florida, adding that the company is thrilled to open its first restaurant in Sarasota County.
Winning free chicken salad for a year only pays off if guests keep coming back to redeem it, which means the giveaway is really a year-long loyalty relationship disguised as a one-day promotion. Gorilla Dash offers a Memberships and Subscriptions feature designed to help franchise brands manage that kind of ongoing rewards redemption, keeping app-based perks like this one running smoothly for the full length of the promotion rather than just on opening day.
