Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to Chicago!

On Sept. 16, Chick-Fil-A opened its first Chicago-area outlet located off of Route 59 in Aurora, on the far side of Westfield Fox Valley Mall.

Within the first week of its Chicago debut, Chick-Fil-A gave away about 13,000 sandwiches and 100 coupons that were good for one free meal each week for a year.

Eager customers camped overnight in the parking lot in order to be the first to enter when the doors opened at 6 a.m.

Founded by Truett Cathy, inventor of the chicken sandwich, the first Chick-Fil-A was opened in 1967 in Atlanta’s Greenbriar Mall.

Over the next five decades, the legendary chicken chain restaurant opened over 1,600 locations in more than 38 states.

The latest additions to the Chick-Fil-A chain are occurring here in Chicago.

“Chicago is one of the biggest cities and market; it hadn’t happened yet so it was time to get over here,” Aurora manager Stephanie Fulford said.

Junior Sen Sebhasen said that he was excited about Chick-Fil-A coming to the Chicago-land area.

“I thought it was really awesome food,” Sebhasen said. “It’s a good change from Burger King or McDonald’s.”

Although there is a lot of competition in the area, McDonald’s or Burger King is not one of them, Fulford said.

“The way they go about serving their customers is completely different than ours,” Fulford said. “We would more likely compete with [a restaurant] like Panera.”

One obstacle with the new location is traffic and how busy it has been. During lunch and dinner time the lines can be out the door.

“I waited in line 45 minutes [the first time] and 20 minutes the second time,” Sabhesan said.

To deal with the drive-thru and parking flow, security is outside directing traffic and workers are outside taking orders to speed things along.

However, business for Chick-Fil-A in Chicago overall has been good.

“Business is awesome,” Fulford said. “They knew it was going to be good, but it is way better than they expected.”

Other locations in Illinois include Bloomington, Charleston and Urbana. A new location is to be opened in Orland Park Oct. 28.