It may feel like in the last decade or two, you’ve seen a Chick-fil-A pop up on every corner, luring you in with the promise of morning chicken biscuits and afternoon sweet tea, but this popular fast food chain is more than an overnight success. What began as a small, singular restaurant location in 1946 evolved into one of the most popular name brands in the country. Though the friendly service and high-quality food have remained the same over the decades, there’s not much on the original menu that you’ll find at a Chick-fil-A today.
Out of the dozens of initial offerings on the menu, the only item that has truly remained the same almost 80 years later is the (understandably) adored chicken sandwiches. This might be thanks to founder Truett Cathy testing the recipe on early customers until he perfected the formula or might be because Cathy recognized the item’s popularity. Beyond the chicken sandwiches, almost everything else on the current, expansive Chick-fil-A menu is new or was developed over the last few decades. Yes, even those iconic waffle fries and beloved Chick-fil-A nuggets.
The Chick-fil-A menu is almost entirely different
Once upon a time, Chick-fil-A was named the Dwarf Grill (which later changed to the Dwarf House) and only existed in the small town of Hapeville, Georgia. It served a wide variety of breakfast and lunch items, similar to a diner, with offerings such as waffles, doughnuts, steak, and even (gasp!) hamburgers. Sides-wise, the restaurant offered pimento cheese, sausage, cereal, toast, and shoestring fries. The beloved crispy Waffle fries weren’t introduced to the Chick-fil-A menu until 1985, decades after the Dwarf Grill got its start. In fact, the Dwarf Grill didn’t expand to become Chick-fil-A until 1967, when the very first location opened in a mall food court with a different menu.
On today’s Chick-fil-A menu, you’ll still see the time-tested chicken sandwich, but you won’t find hamburgers, and your side choices are limited to waffle fries, fruit cups, macaroni and cheese, and a few soups. Chick-fil-A now has more than 3,000 locations across the United States, but you can still experience the original menu at one of 12 Dwarf House locations, including the pioneer restaurant in Georgia. Although we wish menu prices were still as cheap as they used to be at the 1940s Dwarf Grill, it’s safe to say the modern menu is a chicken-lovers paradise.
