It's not like I sit around, pining away for a Chick-fil-A sandwich or anything, but today when I was thinking about lunch it popped in my head and I couldn't shake it. I knew what I was getting myself into: driving down El Camino Real from Santa Clara to Sunnyvale, during lunch time on a sunny Saturday, getting in that super long drive-thru line, wasting maybe 20 minutes of my life in the car just to get my lunch, or maybe I would get lucky and spot an open parking space, just as it opened up so I could go inside and pack myself with the other sardines, hoping to get their chicken on. Seemed like a reasonable idea for some reason, so off I went.
I wasn't the only one. Many of us flipped a u-turn on El Camino moved to the far-right lane and jammed up traffic a bit, wating for our turn to enter the parking lot, then later the drive-thru line. Why would we do this? Lightly-fried chicken, waffle fries, some sauce to dunk it all in perhaps. The way we were all doing it in spite of the inconvenience you would think the meaning of life were in those white paper bags, but no, just some yum chix. Still it made perfect sense. So I did it.
I looked inside and scanned the parking lot. I wasn't going to put myself through that today. So I snaked through the parking lot and into the really long drive-thru line which runs around the perimeter of the property, accommodating maybe 18 cars, unless the drivers are leaving a Facebook buffer in front of their car. All this waiting, then less than 30 seconds ordering. The menu is not too complicated, and for me it always comes down to two options: if I want bread I'm having combo 1, the OG chicken sandwich with waffle fries and a drink. If I'm not into a bun and pickle then it's combo 3 Chick-fil-A nuggets, waffle fries and a drink. They have other stuff. I'll never try it. There's no reason. I'm surprised that I even tried combo 3 one time and occasionally get it, because ever since the 15th Earl of Sandwich and a chicken who shall remain nameless made the Original Chicken Sandwich I have been hooked. No, that didn't really happen. As far as I know. Or did it? Did any of this happen?
Then there's the sauce. I'm gonna write a whole paragraph about it because condiments deserve equal time, and the Polynesian sauce and Chick-fil-A sauce stomp on all other food chain sauces. But not Heinz ketchup. Nothing touches that. It's my jam. Yeah, I said it. When you drive up to get your goods they confirm your order, take your money and ask if you want any sauce. I ask for one, then the other. Sometimes I get the stink-eye for ordering two. I don't care. It's not like I'm gonna run them out of sauce or anything. Give it to me. Thank you.
Chick-fil-A is hard to beat. I wish I were there right now. read more