With 62 of its fast-food chicken stores already in New Jersey malls, suburbs and highway rest areas, Chick-fil-A is planning its first location in Newark.
On Wednesday, the City Council approved the Georgia-based chain’s application for a drive-thru and walk-up facility that would replace a Burger King overlooking a busy intersection in Newark’s Lower Broadway neighborhood.
“We’ve been looking for a long time to be in Essex County, and excited that Newark’s going to be our first entry,” John Martinez, a Chick-fil-A development manager, told the Newark Central Planning Board during a hearing on June 10.
Chick-fil-A does have an Essex County location in Bloomfield, though it’s at the Connie Chung Rest Area on the Garden State Parkway and not accessible from local streets.
As in Bloomfield, where some Bloomfield elected officials opposed plans for the Parkway rest area store, the Newark Chick-fil-A has been controversial, partly over a history of comments by company officials opposing gay marriage. It’s a history that does not sit well with Newark’s increasingly visible LGBTQ+ community of color.
“I think having a Chick-fil-A property would be good for the residents of the City of Newark,” said Imani Hayes, program manager for the Newark-based Project P Trans-Empowerment in Action organization. “However, I think that the owners of Chick-fil-A need to openly apologize to the LGBTQ community, and maybe this perception that they’re anti-LGBTQ will actually be done with.”
Chick-fil-A did not respond to requests for comment.
Others oppose the Newark location because they insist it will negatively impact already snarled traffic at the intersection, a K-shaped convergence of Broadway, Broad Street and Clay Street, only blocks from Interstate 280.
“The ideological issues are one thing — we understand that people aren’t always going to have the same values,” said Elgin Cintron, a spokesman for the non-profit Casa de Don Pedro, a Latino community services organization with facilities across Broadway from the site. “But it’s the traffic. To put it there at that intersection, it’s crazy.”
Charles Traficante, the city traffic engineer who reviewed the application, expressed concern that the morning rush hour on Broadway in front of the site was already “a traffic nightmare.” But Martinez said the morning was its quietest time of day.
Since its founding in 1961, Chick-fil-A has grown to more than 3,000 stores in North America, and its appeal to fast-food fans and critics alike is undeniable. NJ Advance Media food writer Jeremy Schneider called the company’s chicken sandwich “a culinary miracle” in a 2021 survey that ranked it the best of all 15 fast-food chicken sandwiches available in New Jersey. Hayes admitted she was a fan of Chick-fil-A’s chicken nuggets.
Yasmine Kearney, 36, of Newark, said she’s never tried Chick-fil-A but knows its reputation among LGBTQ+ advocates.
Recently, she took in the swirl of cars, trucks and buses at the Lower Broadway intersection from the driver’s seat of her SUV parked at an Auto Zone outlet opposite the Burger King.
“I don’t know how good or bad they are,” Kearney said of the company. “What I can tell you, though, is traffic is going to be bad.”
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at [email protected]
