Lehi Business
American Fork Chick-fil-A reopens its doors
Brynn Carnesecca | Lehi Free Press
In American Fork, the local Chick-fil-A has been a staple and family-favorite restaurant. For the past five months, the location has been closed for indoor and outdoor updates. It recently reopened and welcomed back guests for both drive-thru and dining room ordering.
With the location’s growing popularity, local operator and owner Dusty Pynes knew that the restaurant would need to be updated to increase capacity and efficiency. Although these changes had been planned since 2016, construction did not begin until this year. On July 19, the restaurant closed its doors to update the location. The renovations included updates to benefit both team members and guests.
“We put canopies outside to help the team members with the elements. We have heaters for the winter time and fans with misters for the summer time. We also added a door outside the drive-thru to help us better serve the guests as we go up and down the line delivering food. That is more of the outside changes,” Pynes said. “We changed the drive-thru cockpit area to make it a better experience for the team.”
The biggest changes occurred within the kitchen. The prep area changed from an L-shaped one-line kitchen to a two-line kitchen, drastically increasing kitchen square footage and ensuring they can quickly serve as many guests as possible.
On Dec. 19, the Pynes family and the Chick-fil-A team welcomed guests back to the restaurant with a ribbon cutting, the Chick-Fil-A cow, and a hot air balloon flying above the city. Residents came in droves to both the dine-in area and the drive-thru.
“It’s been exciting seeing the smiles on people’s faces. I can’t tell you how many guests have said, ‘Thanks for opening,’ or, ‘Thanks for being back.’ The community has been so supportive, and it feels great to know that they want us there. There has been a lot of gratitude and appreciation,” Pynes said. “I know the team is really excited to be back in the restaurant, and we are happy to be back doing what we do: serving our guests.”
In the days since opening, the team has already seen the benefits and improvements that arose from the updated kitchen, prep and drive-thru areas.
“The team has been working hard, and it has been a very smooth process. There have been a few hiccups, but we try to serve guests with all we’ve got,” Pynes expressed.
The team is ecstatic to get back to their work and serve people with a smile and a signature “My pleasure.”
“We are excited to be here and to serve people. We love American Fork. We are so happy to be back and we look forward to seeing everyone at our restaurant,” Pynes said.
Chick-fil-A is open Monday-Saturday 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Both the drive-thru, mobile ordering and dining room will be open. For more information about the location or their updates, follow the location @chickfila_af on Instagram, Chick-fil-A American Fork on Facebook, or visit www.chick-fil-a.com/locations/ut/american-fork.
