Copyright Chicago Tribune
There’s a new restaurant in Naperville where chicken salad is the star, and the name makes it clear. It’s Chicken Salad Chick, and it opened this week at 2835 Aurora Ave., right next to the new dining, shopping and gathering spaces of the Block 59 development. The Naperville restaurant is the sixth in Illinois for the Georgia-based brand, which bills itself as the “nation’s only fast-casual chicken salad concept” and is working on an expansion across the Midwest, president and CEO Scott Deviney said in a news release. Franchise owner Karen White, of Naperville, says Chicken Salad Chick is a welcoming and friendly chain with 12 varieties of chicken salad on the menu — plus sandwiches, soups, salads, sides and desserts. If the idea of a chicken salad specialty restaurant seems a little farfetched, think of chicken wings, White said. With all the ways wings can be dressed up, spiced and sauced, it works for some restaurants to focus on them as a key menu highlight. “We do the same thing with chicken salad,” White said. “Everything is made fresh, in-house, and that is honestly what makes the difference.” The selections have names like Fruity Fran, Fancy Nancy, Dixie Chick and Lauryn’s Lemon Basil. White’s favorites are Jalapeño Holly when she’s in the mood for spicy and Cranberry Kelli when she’s not. They steams the chicken before making its salad recipes fresh each day so there’s no grease involved. This leads to simpler operations for her team of roughly 45 employees, White said, plus a healthier result for customers. White has been working toward opening a Chicken Salad Chick franchise for two years after spending more than 30 years in accounting for both public and private organizations. She said her brother, who lives in Florida where the brand is big, suggested she look into it when she was ready for the next step in her career after owning a Naperville Dairy Queen franchise. White then visited the Chicken Salad Chick in Batavia and “immediately fell in love with it,” she said, enjoying the friendliness and warm, homey environment. She said customers who came in during her new store’s first week seem to be feeling the same welcome. “We had some ladies in here last night, and they were here for two-and-a-half hours,” White said Friday, three days after the restaurant opened. “They just felt comfortable hanging out and talking.” A comfortable bond among employees has been “one of the most joyous things” about her new restaurant. She said her team includes students from six Naperville-area high schools who have become friends as they’ve learned their roles with the prep team, sandwich line or front-of-house operations. White’s daughters are involved in the new restaurant operation too. Her older daughter, a full-time CPA, is helping with financial operations on the side, and her younger daughter, a college senior year studying food marketing at Western Michigan University, is helping with marketing and social media. White says her own mother often made chicken salad when she was growing up in Michigan. But she understands the younger generation in Naperville may not share this experience with her restaurant’s signature staple. “People just really need to come in and try it,” White said. “I think once you try it, you are hooked.” Marie Wilson is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
