Today, Thursday, January 26, 2023, the Destin community will welcome a brand new Chick-fil-A restaurant. The new location, located at 1021 Highway 98 East, opened its doors at 6am, with hours of operation from 6am-10pm. 

• The old location, located at 1063 US-98, closed its doors on Monday at 2pm after serving the community for 27 years.

In November 2021, the Destin City Council unanimously approved the Major Development Order to build the new Chick-fil-A at the vacant Gulfview Plaza site. This new location is located just 3 parcels west of the previous location on Highway 98. 

One of the main issues with the previous Chick-Fil-A location was traffic. Cars regularly backed-up onto Highway 98 trying to get into the parking lot or drive-thru, causing traffic issues. This issue, along with traffic at the nearby Whataburger, was something that the Destin City Council had heard from the public for quite some time.

To address these issues, the new Chick-fil-A location features 52 parking spaces and a dedicated drive-thru lane (2 lanes) that wraps around the entire 1.38 acres. The “stacking” of vehicles was the main problem at the previous location. 

The new location will allow for the stacking of at least 36 vehicles, not including the ordering point, which should greatly alleviate the traffic issues that the previous location faced.