The Chick-fil-A at Philips Highway and JTB Boulevard in Jacksonville will reopen on Tuesday, October 27, at 10:30 a.m., more than four months after a kitchen fire tore through the restaurant and forced it to close. The June 9 blaze damaged the kitchen and drive-thru, setting off a lengthy repair process that kept the popular Southside location shuttered through the summer and into fall.
Action News Jax reported that operators expected the restaurant to reopen that month after the kitchen fire shut it down in June. News4JAX later reported the specific reopening date. The fire caused interior and structural damage that forced the closure for repairs, the station reported. As reported by News4JAX, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue said the fire appeared to be electrical, and restaurant representative Ben Bryant said no one was inside when it broke out and there were no casualties.
A Months-Long Repair Job
The scale of the damage became clearer in July, when the city of Jacksonville issued a $1.5 million permit for fire-damage repairs at the 7147 Philips Highway address, with HMC Facilities Group LLC listed as the contractor on the 4,969-square-foot building, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. On the night of the fire, Jacksonville.com reported that the restaurant was closed and would remain shut down for the foreseeable future after flames erupted inside the building overnight.
Bryant told News4JAX the restaurant would be closed for a while before it could reopen, and the operators said the recovery involved months of unexpected challenges and community support. Per Bryant, Chick-fil-A operators elsewhere in Jacksonville helped by taking in displaced team members and product while repairs dragged on.
The Restaurant's Return
The restaurant's operators described the past several months as a journey they never expected, filled with challenges, changes, and so many emotions, Action News Jax reported. Customers could not visit the restaurant during the shutdown.
When the doors open Tuesday morning at 10:30, the restaurant will not be serving breakfast on opening day, according to News4JAX. For a location that sits along one of Jacksonville's busiest commercial corridors near JTB, the return marks the end of a repair saga that stretched from a June fire through a midsummer construction permit and into an October comeback nearly four and a half months later.
