Clayt Keefer: Confessions of a Chick-fil-A junkie

By Clayt Keefer

Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017 | 12:42 p.m.

Ever since I moved from Alabama to Nevada to work at Greenspun Media Group last year, my daily lunch plans have captivated the newsroom.

My picky eating habits have amused colleagues, who constantly joke about my love for fast food. The zingers intensified a few months ago when I couldn’t conceal my excitement over a certain chain moving closer to opening in Las Vegas for the first time.

I’ll confess: I have an unhealthy obsession with Chick-fil-A.

In my defense, the best drive-thru chicken sandwich in America more or less saved my life the summer before I started college. I spent all of my money back then buying a new iPhone — priorities, man — and therefore subsisted almost entirely off of free spicy sandwiches from hoarded coupons.

Three years later, reprising my role as a broke student but a broke student with the latest-generation iPhone, I attempted to score more coupons by attending the “First 100” party thrown at every Chick-fil-A to celebrate its initial wave of guests.

I even once dressed up as a cow and spent an afternoon busing children to and from one of the restaurant’s locations as part of a job to earn money for a new iPhone.

So, yeah, I owe a lot to Chick-fil-A, where I probably ate at least once a week during my six years at the University of Alabama.

When I finally graduated, I grappled with the prospects of moving to one of only five states without a Chick-fil-A location — not really, but that’s what my friends would lead you to believe. I eventually came, despite the unavailability of a staple in my diet, and somehow managed to survive seven months — a trying period that has now ended.

On Tuesday, I became one of the first people to consume a Nevada-made Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich at the location that opens at 6:30 a.m. Thursday at 9925 S. Eastern Ave. A second Henderson store also opens Thursday at 460 N. Stephanie St., with a location at Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive expected to join in the coming months. Long lines already were forming today.

There’s good news: The food tastes exactly like it does down South. I expected near-perfection, and Chick-fil-A delivered on my standard order of a spicy sandwich meal with a sweet tea.

I also added to my Chick-fil-A résumé with a kitchen tour. For a slightly limited menu, the amount of equipment used to prepare the food was amazing.

Everything was neat, clean and efficient as employees trained and worked surprisingly fast for a day when the restaurant was closed to the public.

They looked prepared for what’s sure to be an exhausting rush of customers who, like me, have craved Chick-fil-A in their home state. New Chick-fil-A locations shut down lanes of traffic on major roads in Alabama, where the restaurant is already common.

Nevada, on the other hand, has waited half a century for its chicken-sandwich fix. That might be an exaggeration considering the chicken sandwich is only 52-years-old, but there’s no disputing that anticipation has been building for a while now.

“There are a lot of transplants that live here, so there’s a lot of people who live here that come from other areas that have Chick-fil-A,” said Dave Taplin, franchise owner of the Eastern Avenue store. “We’re excited to bring the convenience of Chick-fil-A to the residents here.”

As a transplant myself, it thrills me to see my favorite Southern establishment follow me to Las Vegas. Now if only Waffle House and Whataburger could be next.

If that ever happens, there should already be several Chick-fil-A locations around by then. Taplin said Chick-fil-A expected to open 10 restaurants in Nevada within the next three years.

I’m guessing that kind of accessibility will have my co-workers eating there more often than they’d like to admit. They can keep on cracking the jokes either way, because I’m getting the last laugh.

Coupon or not, I’m never waiting seven months between a chicken sandwich again.