METAIRIE, La. – The 26th Chick-fil-A restaurant serving greater New Orleans will open May 9 at 3501 Airline Drive (at the corner of Airline and Severn). It is expected to provide jobs for 130 full- and part-time employees.
The restaurant’s owner-operator, Ralph Bartels, has moved to Metairie from the Biloxi area, where he operated another Chick-fil-A location. Born and raised in West Palm Beach, Fla., Bartels began working for Chick-fil-A two decades ago in Orlando. After participating in Chick-fil-A’s leadership development program, he became the local owner-operator of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Biloxi, Miss. in 2011.
“I joined Chick-fil-A as a 20-year-old college student, working in the kitchen breading chicken, and quickly fell in love with the company’s purpose and vision to be the most caring company there is,” said Bartels in a press release. “I took a leap and asked the local owner-operator at that restaurant if I could shadow him, and that was the best chance I ever took on myself. I walked in the doors for my first day as a team member in 2004 and now, 20 years later, I have the honor and privilege to not only be a positive light in the community, but to also guide a new class of team members.”
In celebration of the opening, Chick-fil-A, Inc. has donated $25,000 to Feeding America to support local hunger relief efforts of Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana.
In addition, the new location is participating in the Chick-fil-A Shared Table program, an initiative that redirects surplus food from the restaurant to local soup kitchens, shelters, food banks and nonprofits in need.
Chick-fil-A claims the title of the third largest quick-service restaurant company in the United States. More than 200,000 employees work for independent owner-operators in more than 3,000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. In 2023, the company shared plans to expand by 2030 into Europe and Asia. The family-owned and privately held company was founded in 1967 by S. Truett Cathy.
The new location will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The new restaurant will also feature Mobile Thru, a fully dedicated lane in the drive-thru where guests can pick up orders placed ahead of time on the Chick-fil-A app.
