Hungry fans of Chick-fil-A, home of the Original Chicken Sandwich with two pickles on a toasted butter bun, are still flocking to their favorite lunch hangout on Federal Highway, and ruffling feathers as they block the road.
Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis griped last year about the traffic jam on Federal Highway caused by cars lining up in the drive-thru of the Chick-fil-A at 2650 North Federal Highway.
The line backs up onto Federal Highway during lunchtime and sometimes dinner time too, forcing cars to swerve into the middle lane to avoid the backup. Traffic sometimes backs up into a nearby intersection, creating even more havoc, critics say.
The griping reached a fever pitch last year, with even the mayor chiming in. The public outcry has eased up in recent months but the cars are still backing up.
“I think people have just accepted that nothing can be done,” Trantalis said.
But relief may be on the way, with a possible fix coming by the end of the summer, city officials say.
Fort Lauderdale is working with Chick-fil-A on a pilot program that would reconfigure the drive-thru lanes to allow more cars to stack up in the parking lot instead of Federal Highway.
The pilot program should be ready to go in the next few months.
It can’t happen soon enough for longtime resident Jacquelyn Scott, who says she’s on red alert every time she approaches that busy stretch of Federal Highway, just south of Oakland Park Boulevard.
“The truth is, when you’re driving on Federal Highway you don’t expect having to quickly brake in the middle of the road,” she said. “Every time I approach that area, it pops into my brain, ‘You better get out of the right lane or you’re going to have to hit the brakes.’ But the average person is not going to anticipate all of a sudden having to slam on their brakes.”
Fort Lauderdale’s Chick-fil-A is not the only location with critics squawking over controversial traffic jams.
Lawsuits have been filed in Ohio, Texas and New Jersey over Chick-fil-A outlets with insanely busy drive-thrus. And one city in California has threatened to declare its Chick-fil-A restaurant a public nuisance because the drive-thru lines are choking traffic for hours on end.
Rolando Justiniano, owner of the Fort Lauderdale Chick-fil-A location, could not be reached for comment.
His widely popular location opened in 2014 and is Fort Lauderdale’s only Chick-fil-A.
In a previous interview, Justiniano said Fort Lauderdale could use more Chick-fil-As but said he couldn’t talk details.
“We’re the only Chick-fil-A in Fort Lauderdale,” he said. “I think the city should have three or four.”
Commissioner Heather Moraitis, who represents the neighborhood, couldn’t agree more.
Moraitis thinks more Chick-fil-A restaurants would help satisfy the high customer demand and help solve the traffic woes at the Federal Highway location.
She sent her suggestion in a letter to corporate headquarters in September and copied Justiniano.
“I have not heard back,” she said. “I wrote Chick-fil-A and begged them for another location. This one is very busy. And I thought the best way to fix the problem is to come up with another location.”
As for why it’s taking so long to fix the problem, Moraitis had this quip: “Have you ever seen government move fast?”
One critic suggested the city have the restaurant hire off-duty cops to wave away drive-thru customers creating a traffic jam along Federal Highway
The mayor did not rule out the idea.
“We may have to resort to that,” he said.
Moraitis dismissed the idea of hiring off-duty officers to play traffic cop.
“I don’t believe in overregulation to the point of burdening our restaurants and businesses,” she said. “We need to come up with a traffic solution first.”
Moraitis says she gets the lure of the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. On occasion, she finds herself in line waiting to order their chicken nuggets, fries and oreo milkshake.
“It’s my one guilty pleasure,” she said.
After complaints first came up last year, the restaurant added an extra line at the drive-thru, she noted.
“It’s very fast,” Moraitis said. “It’s just a lot of people want to use it.”
There’s one guy you won’t find in line at Chick-fil-A and that’s the mayor.
“I try to stay away from fried chicken,” he said. “It’s not for everyone. But a lot of people enjoy the food, God bless them. They love Chick-fil-A.”
Susannah Bryan can be reached at or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan
