Fast-casual chain Chicken Salad Chick opens its Morganton, North Carolina location on August 19, with the first 100 guests in line eligible to win free chicken salad for a year — the brand's signature grand-opening play as it deepens its Southeast presence.
The restaurant at 1016 Burkemont Avenue is owned and operated by Allison Anderson and Sunny Murtaza, for whom Morganton represents their second unit. The pair launched their first Chicken Salad Chick in Hickory in 2024. Anderson's background in public service informed her pivot to franchising; she traces her investment decision to a visit to a Bristol-area location in 2021.
"From the moment I stepped into the Bristol location, I knew Chicken Salad Chick was something special," said Anderson, co-owner of the Morganton restaurant. "Opening our second location has been incredibly meaningful to us. It reflects the support we've received and the joy we've found in serving our communities."
Grand-Opening Structure
The four-day opening event offers a graduated incentive each day. On launch day, the first guest in line at 10:30 a.m. wins one free large Quick Chick per week for a year; the next 99 guests receive one free large Quick Chick per month for a year. Subsequent days reward the first 50 qualifying purchasers with branded merchandise — a Chick Beanie on Thursday, a 20-oz tumbler on Friday, and a small teal cooler on Saturday. Participation on opening day requires downloading the brand's app and completing a qualifying purchase, a mechanic that simultaneously drives loyalty program enrollment and in-store traffic.
For multi-unit operators studying fast-casual franchise expansion, the Anderson-Murtaza model — anchoring a second unit within the same regional market as the first — is a low-risk density play that leverages existing supplier relationships, staff pipelines, and local brand awareness built at the Hickory location.
Brand Scale and Community Ties
Chicken Salad Chick has grown to more than 345 restaurants across 25 states, driven almost entirely by franchisees. The brand's made-from-scratch positioning — more than a dozen chicken salad flavors, fresh side salads, soups, and catering — occupies a niche where few national fast-casual competitors operate at scale, giving franchisees a differentiated product in markets that skew toward Southern foodservice preferences.
Community investment is structured into the brand's operating model. Chicken Salad Chick's CSC Foundation directs fundraising toward CURE Childhood Cancer and local food banks. The Morganton pre-opening Friends & Family event specifically raised money for Casting for Hope, a North Carolina nonprofit supporting women with ovarian and other gynecological cancers — a localized cause tie-in that reinforces the franchisees' community-first positioning.
"Allison and Sunny have already built something special with their first restaurant, and bringing a second to the community reflects their passion, dedication, and genuine love for serving others," said Scott Deviney, president and CEO of Chicken Salad Chick.
The Morganton unit will operate Monday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., offering dine-in, takeout, third-party delivery, and catering. For operators tracking franchise growth strategies in the Southeast, the brand's continued North Carolina buildout signals sustained franchisee confidence in the region's fast-casual market.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
