Chicken Salad Chick signs Colorado dealsFast Casual

Chicken Salad Chick has signed two development deals for Colorado to bring six locations to Denver and three to Colorado Springs.

Behind the Denver agreement are franchisees Maureen McFerson and Luke Hadden, residents of South Denver. McFerson has a 10-year career supporting food companies and quick-service restaurants globally in research development and quality assurance, according to a press release.

“We’re excited to bring Chicken Salad Chick to the South Denver Metro area so we can enjoy it anytime we want, but we’re even more excited to introduce the Chicken Salad Chick experience to people who haven’t tried it yet,” McFerson said in the release. “We wanted to create more inroads into where we call home, and providing a fresh, healthy, and convenient restaurant with gracious hospitality that stems from a company with a community-oriented culture seemed like the best way to do that. We can’t wait to see people enjoying sunny days on the restaurant patio or picking up a Quick Chick to-go on their way to kickball, a local brewery, concert, tailgate with friends or up to the mountains.”

The first of the six locations targeted for Denver is slated to come summer 2023, and all six are planned to open over the next five years in the Denver Tech Center, Castle Rock, Highlands Ranch, Lakewood, Littleton, Lone Tree, and Parker.

Franchisees Kirsten and David Garrett, and Kirsten’s mother, Judy, are leading the Colorado Springs openings. Originally from Colorado, Kirsten Garrett, an Air Force veteran, was stationed in Montgomery, Alabama, when she first learned about Chicken Salad Chick. After her time in the Air Force, she moved back to Colorado and opened a home care business for seniors, with her mother and husband. After many years of traveling to Alabama to visit family and get a taste of Chicken Salad Chick, Kirsten called in to see if the brand was expanding in Colorado. Within the last year, she was notified of the expansion efforts and jumped on the opportunity. The first of their three locations is slated to open spring of 2023 in the Powers neighborhood. The team is targeting Briargate for the second location and is still in site selection for the third location.

“Bringing Chicken Salad Chick to Colorado Springs has been a dream of mine. The community is getting a great new option for lunch and dinner, and I can’t wait for the rest of the community to be hooked like we are,” Kirsten Garrett said in the release. “Besides the quality food, opening three new locations is a new and exciting challenge for us. We really enjoyed watching a business start and grow with our homecare company, and can’t wait to be able to serve our community in a different capacity with our new Chicken Salad Chick locations.”

These locations will join what is set to be Chicken Salad Chick’s first statewide location that is under construction in Greeley at 4239 Centerplace Dr., and slated to open in Q2 2023. Behind this location are franchisees David and Jessica Zumbrun.

“At the beginning of this year, we put a strong focus on finding the right franchise partners in the Colorado Springs market and Denver market to support the momentum the we have generated around brand development in Colorado,” Scott Deviney, CEO of Chicken Salad Chick, said in the release. “We’ve been targeting a concentric circle growth strategy that Colorado falls perfectly in and we’re thrilled to expand the brand’s presence further west to support our vision of being America’s favorite place for chicken salad.”

Earlier this year, the chicken salad concept also announced signed agreements in Chicagoland and Virginia Beach and hopes to have 500 locations open by end of 2025.