Clovis to get first Chick-fil-A on July 1 with cow-themed opening event

Clovis’s first Chick-fil-A will open at 6:30 a.m. on July 1 at Shaw and Helm avenues, and the cow-themed giveaway is expected to draw the biggest crowd before the morning commute gets rolling. The new restaurant sits just east of Willow Avenue at 560 W Shaw Ave., a spot that puts it directly into one of the city’s busiest retail corridors.

The company is billing the debut as a Moove-In Party, and opening-day guests dressed in cow spots will get one free entrée or kids’ meal while supplies last. Chick-fil-A says the promotion applies to people wearing a full cow suit or a cow-spotted accessory, whether they order inside or in the drive-thru. That setup all but guarantees a line of cars and pedestrians at the start of the day, especially with breakfast service beginning at 6:30 a.m.

Andrew Bloom is the local owner-operator, giving the project a Clovis face as well as a national brand name. Bloom has said he wants the restaurant to become part of the Clovis community and to make a difference there. Chick-fil-A says its operators are independent business owners who determine local events and promotions in their communities, and Bloom’s role makes him the public point person for how the store fits into the neighborhood.

The opening also adds another fast-food draw to a stretch that already handles steady traffic near Shaw, Helm and Willow. Earlier plans for the project called for a restaurant of nearly 5,000 square feet with a double-lane drive-thru, the kind of setup that can speed service once the opening-day rush fades but can also back up quickly when demand spikes. The location is the chain’s third in the Fresno area, after restaurants at River Park shopping center and near Fashion Fair Mall.

Hiring is part of the story too. Earlier reporting put the restaurant’s workforce at 80 to 120 jobs, a meaningful addition for a single location in a growing city. Chick-fil-A also says more than 2,500 of its restaurants participate in Shared Table, a food-donation program that redirects surplus food to local nonprofits, suggesting the Clovis store will plug into the company’s broader community model as well as its sales machine.

For residents, the first days will be the most crowded, with the opening ceremony, free-food promotion and drive-thru traffic converging at once. After that, the restaurant is likely to settle into the breakfast-and-lunch rhythm that has made Chick-fil-A a fixture in other Fresno-area shopping centers.