The Chick-fil-A Dwarf House at 221 Banks Station in Fayetteville has announced it will close on November 6 to make way for a new chapter planned for 2027, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. The restaurant, which this year celebrated 35 years in business, is expected to be completely demolished and rebuilt as a larger Truett's Chick-fil-A.
The closure was first reported as expected to happen later this year by ToNeTo Atlanta; FOX 5 Atlanta also reported that the existing building would be replaced by a new Truett's Chick-fil-A. A September 17 article from thecitymenus.com, in collaboration with ToNeTo Atlanta, puts the current Fayetteville Dwarf House at about 6,300 square feet, with the new Truett's Chick-fil-A slated to be about 7,500 square feet. A separate planning-materials snippet, flagged as lower confidence, lists different figures — 6,261 square feet for the existing restaurant and 7,468 square feet for the new one — so the exact dimensions remain somewhat in dispute depending on the source.
Student news outlet theprowlernews.org reports the rebuilt restaurant will include a new two-lane drive-through, a detail aimed at easing the kind of traffic backups common at busy Chick-fil-A locations. The outlet confirms the Fayetteville building is getting completely demolished and rebuilt rather than simply renovated.
A Shrinking Footprint for a Georgia Icon
The Dwarf House concept was built in homage to Chick-fil-A founder S. Truett Cathy's first restaurant, the Dwarf Grill, and has existed since 1985, according to tonetoatl.com. At its peak, the concept had eleven locations scattered across the greater Atlanta metro area. That number has been shrinking for years: the same report notes Chick-fil-A has demolished several Dwarf House restaurants recently, including those in Woodstock, Rome, Newnan, Griffin, Stockbridge and the original in Hapeville.
Once the Fayetteville location closes, just three classic Dwarf House restaurants will remain — in Forest Park, Jonesboro and Riverdale, per the same tonetoatl.com report. Not every closed Dwarf House has been rebuilt on the same site, either. The Pleasant Hill Road location in Duluth closed in February 2025, but instead of being torn down and rebuilt in place, the property was abandoned and a new Truett's Chick-fil-A was constructed several miles away in Loganville.
How the Hapeville Original Handled Its Own Rebuild
Fayetteville isn't the first Dwarf House to go through a major overhaul. The original Hapeville restaurant, founded by Truett Cathy in 1946 and originally named the Dwarf Grill, closed in April 2021 for what Chick-fil-A called a massive makeover and reopened on February 17, 2022, according to Chick-fil-A. That Hapeville site is recognized as the birthplace of the Original Chick-fil-A Chicken Sandwich, per WSB-TV.
The rebuilt Hapeville location emerged with more than twice the capacity of the original, as reported by Chick-fil-A, while still holding onto pieces of its history — the iconic little red door, the dwarf mural and the original 14 stools were all preserved inside the new building.
Other Local Chick-fil-A Changes Already Underway
The Fayetteville demolition isn't the only local Chick-fil-A disruption this year. Truett's Chick-fil-A Luau at 600 West Lanier Avenue in Fayetteville closed temporarily beginning July 30 for renovations, with improvements expected to enhance both the dining room and drive-thru experience, per thecitymenus.com's earlier report. That location was expected to reopen in mid-October.
For longtime customers, the Fayetteville Dwarf House closing represents the end of a 35-year run for one of the few remaining classic locations tied to Truett Cathy's original restaurant concept. Chick-fil-A's very first official restaurant opened inside Atlanta's Greenbriar Mall in 1967, according to Fox Business — a reminder of just how far the chain has grown from its modest Dwarf Grill roots. With the new chapter planned for 2027, Fayetteville diners will have to wait to see what the rebuilt restaurant looks like once construction wraps.
