Chick-fil-A fans, here's some tar with those feathers

By CRAIG NORTHRUP

Staff Writer

Someone in Hayden is playing a tantalizing game of chicken.

Despite a curious sign that emerged overnight on Government Way that teases Hayden residents’ tastebuds with the hopes of an impending Chick-fil-A, officials from the city of Hayden confirmed its offices have received no requests for building permits, no requests for information and no requests for applications from the Georgia company.

“Usually, when a company like [Chick-fil-A] is coming, they’ll come in [to City Hall],” city administrator Brett Boyer said Wednesday. “They’ll ask to make sure the zoning’s correct, and that the location was correct. If the land use was already set, they’d come in for a pre-application meeting and gather information. Nobody has done anything like that.”

The sign was proliferated over social media, ruffling enough feathers to prompt Hayden’s Community Development team to conduct an exhaustive search of their records for any overlooked applications or letters. The search came up empty.

The sign — perched crookedly on two iron rebar posts at 9244 N. Government Way, just south of Zip’s — promises passersby a delicious future: “Coming Soon, Chick-fil-A, Home of the original chicken sandwich.”

While its installaton does not appear to be the work of professionals, the freshly printed sign itself is clean and uses both the branding fonts and logo of the chicken restaurant icon, which has created a near-cult following among its fans.

“I first had Chick-fil-A in Orlando two years ago,” Trisha Bailey recalled, her eyes lit up as she worked her shift at Starbucks in Coeur d’Alene. “Their Chick-fil-A sauce was amazing. A-maz-ing.”

Bailey said she saw a photograph of the sign on social media, an image that filled her with joy. The Chick-fil-A sauce Bailey spoke of — which she suspects is an addictive blend of fry sauce and honey mustard, among other ingredients — is one of a handful of selections on the fast food restaurant’s menu that attracts chicken enthusiasts from great and objectively unreasonable distances to enjoy.

Ruis Esposito of Post Falls claims he once traveled to Kalispell, Mont., — just over 200 miles away — for a pair of chicken sandwiches and an order of waffle fries.

“I’d go anywhere for Chick-fil-A,” Esposito said, standing just outside the Riverstone McDonald’s. “I’d go to the moon for their chicken and fries, man. The moon.”

Not all love affairs with Chick-fil-A end happily ever after. Ray Sonnheim of Coeur d’Alene said when he first moved to Kootenai County from San Francisco last year, he was aghast to learn the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area didn’t have a franchise. The retired software engineer who said he lived on his phone admitted he made a rookie mistake that cost him a day of his life.

“I didn’t check my Google to see where the nearest Chick-fil-A was,” he said. “But I knew there were a few in Seattle. So I got in my truck, and I drove to Seattle.”

The five-hour journey — a full 220 miles farther than the 90-mile trip to the nearest Chick-fil-A in Moscow — ended for Sonnheim in a poultry-less disaster. He chose to make the trek on a Sunday, when the faith-founded restaurant is famously closed.

“I was pissed,” he remembered with a resigned smile. “But it’s my own fault.”

As of press time, representatives from Chick-fil-A have not responded to multiple requests for comment, which is nothing new. The company is famously secretive about its plans to install new restaurants in communities, even North Spokane, where Chick-fil-A announced in late August it had no plans to build a restaurant in the area. Yet on Dec. 16 — a day before the mystery Hayden sign first appeared — the company’s site plan received a conditional letter of approval from the city of Spokane for its 9304 N. Newport Highway site.

So maybe — MAYBE — the daylong journeys to Montana or Seattle and the adventures south to the Moscow Chick-fil-A will soon come to an end.

Maybe.

“Don’t tell me they’re not coming,” Bailey said with a smile that served either as a sign of jest or a defense mechanism against emotional suffering. “Don’t tell me that. I would cry if it was a hoax. I would cry.”