Chicken Salad Chick, a fast-casual restaurant concept, is proud to celebrate the five-year anniversary of the opening of its first restaurant in Auburn, Alabama, on January 7.

The restaurant concept was founded when stay-at-home mom Stacy Brown discovered the perfect recipe for chicken salad. From there, she formed a business partnership with her future husband, then-computer software salesman Kevin Brown. The two worked together to turn Stacy’s recipe into a restaurant, and opened the first Chicken Salad Chick location on Opelika Road in Auburn on January 7, 2008. The restaurant was so popular they sold out of chicken salad the first day, and a local legend was born.

After four years of local success in Auburn, the chicken salad connoisseurs announced plans to franchise the popular eatery in 2012 and grow the business primarily through franchise unit expansion throughout the southeastern U.S. Today, Chicken Salad Chick has sold54 franchises to be developed across the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and look forward to expanding nationally in the next few years.

“We have witnessed increasing customer demand for Chicken Salad Chick since the opening of our first takeout restaurant in 2008,” Stacy Brown says. “The fact that our own customers want to own their own Chicken Salad Chick is affirmation for us that we are touching lives. And that is our goal every day.”

“Since our first day in Auburn five years ago, our goal has been to offer the freshest food, made of the highest quality ingredients and served in a genuine way,” Kevin Brown says. “We believe that this simple concept, coupled with a superb dining experience, will be our driving force as we gear up for the next five years and beyond.”

To celebrate this five-year milestone and thank customers for their continued support, Chicken Salad Chick will host promotions and giveaways from January 7 to 12. Giveaway items will include free lunches, pounds of chicken salad to go, and party platters.