San Juan is about to get its first taste of Chick-fil-A. The restaurant at 601 N Cesar Chavez Road is set to start serving customers next Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6:30 a.m., bringing the chain's chicken sandwiches and waffle fries to a city that has never had a location of its own.
The new restaurant, Chick-fil-A Shops at Chavez, will begin serving the San Juan community that morning, according to Chick-fil-A. The company says it's expected to be San Juan's first Chick-fil-A, a milestone first reported by MyRGV.com on July 28, 2025, and later by mysanantonio.com in August 2025. Chick-fil-A, Inc. has selected Rodrigo Ortega as the local Owner-Operator, putting him in charge of day-to-day operations at the new site.
Ortega isn't new to the brand. Born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and raised in El Paso, he's spent more than two decades in Texas border communities and started his Chick-fil-A career at age 17 as a team member in El Paso, per the company's announcement. That background now puts him at the helm of a restaurant expected to create roughly 95 full- and part-time jobs for the San Juan area.
Hours, Service Options and the Sunday Closure
Once open, Chick-fil-A Shops at Chavez will serve guests Monday through Saturday from 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., the company says. The location will offer dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out, third-party delivery, mobile pick-up and Mobile Thru service, giving San Juan residents several ways to get their order. True to the chain's long-standing policy, the restaurant's location page notes that Chick-fil-A restaurants remain closed on Sundays. The San Juan location is also recruiting team members now, advertising employee scholarship and educational assistance opportunities as part of the job openings.
Opening day will come with a bit of theater. Rodrigo Ortega and his team are inviting the community to a Moove-In Party on opening day, welcoming guests of all ages who show up dressed in cow spots. Anyone who arrives in costume can redeem one free entrée or kid's meal inside the restaurant or in the drive-thru that day, a nod to the chain's long-running cow mascot promotions.
Part of a Bigger Shopping Center Build-Out
The Chick-fil-A opening isn't an isolated addition. It kicks off phase two of a multi-phase Shops at Chavez development that is ultimately expected to include more than 125,000 square feet of new retailers and restaurants, according to MyRGV.com. The shopping center itself was built in 2021, per a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation registration filing cited by the outlet.
Other confirmed tenants at the Shops at Chavez include Burlington, dd's DISCOUNTS and Ross Dress for Less, the same outlet reports. Those three national retailers are set to serve as the plaza's main anchors, with their combined construction costs totaling $10.125 million according to TDLR records cited by mysanantonio.com. MyRGV.com's reporting breaks the figures down further: Burlington's project carries an estimated cost of $3.75 million, the dd's DISCOUNTS build is pegged at $2.5 million and expected to wrap by late January 2027, and the Ross Dress for Less project has an estimated cost of $3.875 million.
The Shops at Chavez is just one of several similar retail plazas that have gotten underway across Hidalgo County in recent months, mysanantonio.com notes, suggesting San Juan's commercial corridor is seeing a broader wave of development alongside the new chicken joint. An earlier report from The Advance News Journal had anticipated construction beginning in summer 2025 with an opening in spring 2026, a timeline that differs from the October date now confirmed by Chick-fil-A itself.
What to Expect When the Doors Open
For now, the countdown is on. Texas Border Business reported the opening-day details for San Juan readers, including the cow-costume freebie and the new jobs headed to the community. With roughly 95 positions opening up and a long list of service options from drive-thru to delivery, the Shops at Chavez location looks poised to become one of the busier new stops in the area once its doors open next Thursday morning.
