Four years after the San Antonio City Council made national headlines for voting to keep Chick-fil-A out of the San Antonio International Airport, the Atlanta-based fast food chain is set to open a restaurant just a stone’s throw from City Hall.
The new restaurant, scheduled to open Thursday, will be located in the Rand Building on East Houston Street. Two blocks from San Antonio City Hall, it’s visible from the entrance to the council chambers in Municipal Plaza and across the street from a building housing city offices.
Both Chick-fil-A and City Council members say much has changed since the 2019 dust-up, which roiled Ron Nirenberg’s critics in the 2019 mayoral race and spurred a state law designed to protect religious freedom.
That spring, a group of council members led by Roberto Treviño, then the District 1 councilman, took issue with the company’s past donations to organizations with anti-LGBTQ stances and deemed it contrary to their goal of creating a welcoming and inclusive airport experience.
The council voted 6-4 to approve a concession contract with Atlanta-based Paradies Lagardère to operate several food and beverage shops in the airport, but not a Chick-fil-A.
The move was met with backlash from local business leaders, Attorney General Ken Paxton and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, who felt Chick-fil-A was wrongly excluded.
Within months Gov. Greg Abbott had signed a law — known informally as the “Save Chick-fil-A law” — to prohibit government entities from taking “adverse actions” against businesses because of religious beliefs, though the state Supreme Court ruled San Antonio’s decision didn’t violate the new statute. The city also took action to avoid repeating the public relations nightmare by changing the way council discusses multimillion-dollar contracts.
Controversy fades
This month Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8), who called the chain a “symbol of hate” when he voted to keep it out of the airport in 2019, told the San Antonio Report he wished Chick-fil-A the best with its expansion in San Antonio.
“Chick-fil-A is delicious. My kids and I love eating Chick-fil-A,” Pelaez said, though he remains pleased with the ultimate outcome at the airport.
“I’m proud that, after all of the hubbub, Whataburger ended up being the food provider there,” Pelaez said of the San Antonio-based hamburger chain. “As far as Chick-fil-A goes … I hope they continue to grow all over San Antonio, but at our airport, what makes us us, is locally owned restaurants.”
Chick-fil-A has also made peace with the city since 2019, when the company reportedly pressed pause on new San Antonio locations.
That November the company announced a new structure for its charitable giving, completing a larger shift away from anti-LGBTQ causes that began in 2012, when the company faced backlash over comments then-CEO Dan Cathy made expressing opposition to same-sex marriage.
“I am so thrilled to be opening a restaurant in the heart of the city — just a block away from the beloved River Walk,” new franchise owner Jamie Williams said in a statement Monday. “I hope to create meaningful connections by serving others and leading with love, and I look forward to making an impact on this community and my team.”
Including the Main and Houston location, Chick-fil-A currently operates 37 restaurants in the San Antonio market — compared with approximately 30 in 2019. It plans to open an additional five to six new restaurants in the greater San Antonio area over the next few years, the company said in a statement.
The downtown location will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday. Like all Chick-fil-A locations, it will be closed Sunday.
A rare drive-thru
The new Houston Street restaurant features a drive-thru — an unusual amenity for downtown San Antonio — that can be accessed mid-block from Soledad Street. Cars will travel through the building’s first level, then exit back out onto Soledad Street.
The location in a historic building required close cooperation with the city, which regulates how such structures can be changed.
The Rand Building was constructed in 1913 and is considered a contributing feature to the city’s Main and Military Plaza Historic District. The building was designed by architects Sanguinet and Staats of Fort Worth, and the drive-thru was originally created for a bank.
San Antonio’s Historic and Design Review Commission approved Alamo Architects’ plans to convert the space in December 2021.
The work involved removing an existing storefront on Main Street and installing a new one on East Houston Street. The architects agreed to use “materials appropriate to the time period” and “return non-historic facades to the original design based on photographic evidence.”
The city also approved some changes to the Rand Garage to facilitate the updated drive-thru, which had been out of use and blocked off by traffic barriers.
Chick-fil-A plans to hire 75 employees for its new downtown location, according to a press release. Williams, a Houston native, moved to San Antonio with his family to operate the new restaurant.
In honor of the new location, Chick-fil-A Inc. plans to donate $25,000 to the nonprofit Feeding America, which will distribute the funds to San Antonio partners that work to combat hunger.
