Jersey City's First Chick-fil-A Restaurant Opening Nov. 11

Jersey City’s first Chick-fil-A® restaurant will open Nov. 11 inside Newport Centre Mall, bringing 60 jobs, the chance for 100 adults to win free Chick-fil-A meals for a year and the opportunity for community members to donate children’s books that will benefit Junior Achievement of New Jersey.

The opening comes as Chick-fil-A marks the 12th anniversary of its “First 100” promotion, which continues to be the chain’s signature grand opening event. Launched at the opening of the chain’s first stand-alone Arizona restaurant in October 2003, the First 100 celebration has given away more than $25 million in free food since it began.

The latest First 100 event, hosted by the Newport Centre Mall Chick-fil-A restaurant at 30 Mall Dr. West, will award more than $32,000 in free food. A digital offer card loaded with a one-year supply of free Chick-fil-A Meals will be given to each of the first 100 eligible adults, ages 18 and older with identification, about 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 11, shortly before the restaurant opens at 10 a.m. The line for the promotion, to be held on the roof of the Newport Centre Mall parking garage, will open at9:30 p.m., on Tuesday, Nov. 10, with participants allowed to bring only a chair and a blanket. Chick-fil-A will provide security, restroom access, games, entertainment and, of course, Chick-fil-A, transforming the roof into a community friendly party as fans await the opening.

If 100 people are onsite when the line officially opens at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, then all 100 spots will be determined by a drawing with those selected needing to camp out for 12 hours to secure their spot. This community event is open to guests who live in specific zip codes surrounding the restaurant. Interested participants may obtain a complete listing of zip codes and rules at www.chick-fil-a.com/locations/first-100.

Chick-fil-A believes in partnering with organizations that enrich education, literacy and youth. In that spirit, Chick-fil-A Operator Erik Benitez is collecting new children’s books at the Newport Centre Mall restaurant between 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., Nov. 9 - 12. The donated books will be placed in a nearly three-foot Book House and donated to Junior Achievement of New Jersey. The Book House serves as a free library exchange – allowing anyone to take a book after replacing it with one of their own. Created from old and thrown out wood, the Book House is one of several community programs made possible through the Chick-fil-A Foundation (www.chick-fil-afoundation.org).

The opening of the new Chick-fil-A restaurant, located on the third floor of the mall’s dining pavilion, comes 48 years after founder S. Truett Cathy opened the very first Chick-fil-A restaurant in an Atlanta mall in 1967, pioneering the concept of mall food courts and launching the chain into almost five decades of growth and more than 1,945 locations.

Creating 60 new jobs, the Newport Centre Mall Chick-fil-A restaurant is the second of three New Jersey locations the chain is opening this fall. The first, a stand-alone location in Woodbridge, opened in September while Chick-fil-A will open inside Garden State Plaza in Paramus on Nov. 19. Together, the three openings will create about 200 new jobs and bring the total of Chick-fil-A restaurants in northern New Jersey to 12.

As a teenager hoping to earn money to buy his first car, Benitez applied at a new Chick-fil-A restaurant opening in West Palm Beach, Fla., and began his career as a team member. He worked his way up into leadership positions and began training new team members at grand openings around the country while pursuing his business management degree from the University of Phoenix. In 2012, Benitez joined the Chick-fil-A corporate staff as a grand opening supervisor, guiding new owners as they set up and opened their new locations. The son of a Columbian mother and Puerto Rican father, Benitez grew up in Brooklyn until he was 13 years old. He is thrilled to be back home and is eager to get to know and serve the diverse community where his new restaurant is located.

“Personalized customer service and freshly prepared food have been the hallmarks of Chick-fil-A since the day founder Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant,” said Benitez. “My team members and I are committed to those same ideas as we welcome our guests to our Newport Centre Mall restaurant and provide them with a remarkable experience.”

The Newport Centre Mall Chick-fil-A will be open from 10 a.m. – 9:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, serving lunch and dinner menu selections including the signature Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich, waffle potato fries, freshly squeezed lemonade, Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets, handspun milkshakes and other favorites. Like all locations, it will be closed on Sunday.

Perfecting a recipe his mother used in her Atlanta boarding house, Cathy first served his boneless breast-of-chicken sandwich, pressured cooked and served on a buttered bun with two crucial pickles, at his Dwarf Grill restaurant which opened in 1946 in Hapeville, Ga. It was the signature menu item when the first Chick-fil-A restaurant opened in 1967 inside an Atlanta mall. Though joined by many other menu options over the years, the Chick-fil-A sandwich remains the centerpiece of the menu as the chain has grown to more than 1,945 restaurants in 42 states and Washington D.C.

For more information on the Newport Centre Chick-fil-A restaurant, find us on Facebook at Chick-fil-A at Newport Centre.