JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Southside Chick-fil-A that has sat dark since a kitchen fire in early summer is set to start serving again next week in Jacksonville.
The restaurant at Philips Highway and JTB Boulevard plans to open its doors at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27. There will be no breakfast menu on the first day back.
Flames broke out at the restaurant on June 9, damaging the kitchen and the drive-thru lane. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue said at the time that the blaze appeared to be electrical in nature. Nobody was in the building when it started, and no one was hurt, but the damage was heavy enough that the location closed with no reopening date in sight.
Repairs turned into a major job. In July, Jacksonville approved a $1.5 million permit covering fire-damage repairs at 7147 Philips Highway, with HMC Facilities Group LLC named as the contractor for the 4,969-square-foot building.
While the store was closed, other Chick-fil-A operators around Jacksonville took on workers who had been displaced and helped absorb the restaurant’s product until the rebuild was finished. In a note posted before the return, the restaurant thanked its staff and the surrounding community for sticking with it through a stretch it described as full of challenges and changes it never saw coming.
The location sits along one of the busier commercial corridors on the Southside, near the interchange of Philips Highway and J. Turner Butler Boulevard. Customers who relied on the store have had to drive to other locations across the city since June, and the reopening returns a busy lunch and dinner stop to that part of town.
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Jacksonville business profiles
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