HILLSBORO, Ore. (KOIN) — Chick-fil-A opened its doors on Thursday morning to an excited crowd, many of whom spent the night camped outside of the restaurant.
Fans lined the streets outside Oregon’s first standalone Chick-fil-A in the Tanasbourne area of Hillsboro 24 hours ahead of its grand opening.
While a regular order of chicken nuggets may have been enough to motivate some, these hardcore Chick-fil-A fans had their eyes on a much bigger prize: Free food for a year for the first 100 customers through the door.
Those first 100 customers get a free Chick-fil-A meal once a week for 52 weeks.
Tents filled the restaurant’s parking lot at 2865 NW Town Center Drive, where dedicated fans spent the night.
Oregon previously had 2 Chick-fil-A restaurants, but the last one closed in 2003.
Chick-fil-A came to life in Georgia in the 1940s, where it boasts it came up with the first-ever chicken sandwich.
“We moved here pretty recently so we haven’t had Chick-fil-A for a long time,” Laura Bean said. “We were pretty stoked to have one come close by again.”
The Hillsboro Chick-fil-A is one of more than 90 new restaurants the chain plans to open across the U.S. in 2016, including one in the Clackamas Promenade.