New Market Entry
Chicken Salad Chick opens its first greater Cleveland restaurant on August 25 at 3038 Westgate Mall Drive in Fairview Park's Westgate Shopping Center — the brand's first foothold in the market and a fresh data point in the chain's ongoing Midwest franchise buildout. The 345-plus-unit concept, which operates across 25 states, is positioning the Cleveland entry as a cornerstone for broader Ohio growth, according to CEO and president Scott Deviney.
First-time franchisees Doug and Angela Fitch, Avon, Ohio residents, own and operate the new unit. The couple brings nearly 40 combined years of restaurant, sales, and administrative experience to the build — Doug's background concentrates specifically in franchise restaurant operations. For foodservice equipment consultants and dealers tracking fast casual expansion in secondary Midwest markets, the Fairview Park opening illustrates how regional strip-mall and shopping-center sites continue to anchor new-unit growth for emerging chains outside the top-10 metros.
Kitchen and Service Model
The Fairview Park unit operates a made-from-scratch production model across more than a dozen chicken salad varieties, plus soups, sandwiches, fresh sides, and desserts — a prep-intensive back-of-house profile that typically demands reliable cold-holding capacity, high-volume prep equipment, and adequate refrigerated display. The restaurant supports in-restaurant dining, takeout, third-party delivery, and catering, a multi-channel service mix that places sustained demand on cold chain and prep-and-storage equipment throughout the day. Hours run Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For operators and consultants tracking fast casual kitchen design in the chicken segment, Chicken Salad Chick's model is notably cold-focused rather than cooked-to-order: throughput depends on chilled product rotation and front-of-house display rather than live-fire cooking lines. That distinction matters when specifying refrigeration density, pass-through capacity, and smallwares volumes for future franchise builds in this system.
Expansion Trajectory
With more than 345 restaurants across 25 states, Chicken Salad Chick has grown rapidly through franchising and continues to identify markets where no direct concept competes. Deviney cited Cleveland's affordable operating costs and strong local food culture as key factors in selecting the market. The brand's CSC Foundation also conducts ongoing fundraisers supporting childhood cancer research and local food banks — an element the Fairview Park team is activating pre-opening through a partnership with Prayers From Maria, a children's cancer nonprofit.
For dealers and dealer-channel reps monitoring fast casual pipeline activity in Ohio, the Cleveland entry suggests additional units are likely to follow. Deviney noted the brand looks forward to "serving even more Ohioans very soon," language consistent with multi-unit franchise development agreements that typically underpin new-market entries at this scale.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
