I love a retail park that believes it is changing history. Palace Grounds in Hamilton is getting the UK’s first Chick-fil-A drive-through on Thursday, and the traditional speaker box has apparently been judged too emotionally distant for the occasion.
Staff will walk beside the queue with handheld tablets, taking orders face to face and sending them straight to the kitchen. The company calls this a more personal experience. Fast food has acquired concierge service. Your chicken sandwich may now arrive with the faint sense that somebody has checked how your journey was.
I shall observe from the canopy in my rouge-tinted sunnies, naturally. There is no point welcoming an American drive-through to South Lanarkshire without making an effort. The cars can queue below. I shall be above them with a coffee and the expression of somebody who has accidentally booked valet parking for waffle fries.
The restaurant opens at 10am on Thursday 29 October at Unit B, Palace Grounds Road, Hamilton. It will offer dine-in, takeaway and drive-through service from 10am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday, and close on Sundays. The unit previously housed KFC, so the chicken succession has been orderly.
The menu brings the original chicken sandwich, nuggets, waffle potato fries, lemonade, milkshakes, salads and grilled chicken. Chick-fil-A says the opening will create about 100 full-time and part-time jobs. It also says the Hamilton restaurant will join its Shared Table programme, which redirects surplus food to local organisations, while the wider UK expansion is backed by a promised investment of more than $100 million over ten years.
The company’s announcement calls Hamilton its first restaurant in Scotland. History, however, has retained a receipt. STV reports that Chick-fil-A previously operated a four-month pop-up at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort in 2019, where the arrival drew protests over donations by the company’s owners to anti-LGBT groups. The hotel described that outlet as a pop-up when it closed in January 2020.
The argument did not remain in the Highlands. The Peter Tatchell Foundation organised a protest when Chick-fil-A opened its first London restaurant in March this year. The campaign group said it had repeatedly asked the company for a clear assurance that it would not fund organisations opposing LGBT equality and had not received one.
Chick-fil-A’s UK website now says it values difference, promotes equal access and wants a culture of belonging. In an NBC interview published on 14 October, chief executive Andrew Cathy was asked about the company’s position on equal rights. He answered by talking about food, service and welcoming everybody to eat. That was an answer about hospitality. It was not the explicit assurance campaigners had requested.
This creates a slightly awkward opening-day tableau. A company so committed to face-to-face answers about sauce selection still seems more comfortable using the corporate speaker box when the question is equality. The tablet can send your order straight to the kitchen. The harder question remains in the queue.
None of that belongs on the shoulders of the Hamilton staff, who are turning up to new jobs and preparing to serve a crowd. Nor does it require customers to pretend a chicken sandwich is a referendum. It does mean the launch is more than a menu reveal with an American accent. This is a multinational returning to Scotland with jobs, investment, food and unresolved baggage in the boot.
Chick-fil-A Hamilton Palace Grounds opens at 10am on Thursday 29 October and will trade Monday to Saturday. Hamilton can now decide whether personal connection at a drive-through means a tablet beside the car, a clear answer from the company, or ideally both before the waffle fries cool.
