UPDATE ON MARCH 30: The third location opened at 6 a.m. Thursday morning. Dozens of people have been standing in line and camping in front of the restaurant in anticipation of its opening. This will be the third restaurant in the Las Vegas valley.
Officials with the new restaurant say they've tried to learn from the other grand openings about what worked, and what didn't.
The Rancho Drive location will be the first location in the valley to have a mobile pick up window, for customer who order from their smartphone. This will help to get customers in and out of the door even quicker.
Officials say they have 130 employees working throughout opening day, which is over double the amount of employees they have scheduled on any other day.
They also say they'll be monitoring traffic flow, and working with NDOT and police for crowd control.
ORIGINAL STORY
The first Chick-fil-A on the west side of the Las Vegas valley opens Thursday.
It will be located at 2480 S. Rancho Drive, not far from Sahara Avenue and Interstate 15. The other two locations are in Henderson.
Plenty were interested in being one of the first 100 people in line, which comes with free Chick-fil-A meals for a year.
The line had already started Tuesday evening.
"I've always worked, and now I'm retired and can do something like this," said Bob Prideaux, the first in line.
Those waiting in line were dancing for dozens of breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The first 100 people in line get a free meal a week for a year.
To entertain themselves many of the freebie fans danced, listened to music, and played games. After a dance party Wednesday, these freebie fans took a break from their parking lot tent city for a cookie party inside the not yet officially opened restaurant.
Mike Foley says he wasn't planning to camp out until he found out there was free food on the line.
“I just arrived,” Foley said. “I didn’t have anything. I called out to my Facebook friends and they brought me food and they brought me this old mattress.”
Jordun Evans was with a group of friends who camped out together.
”To be honest this is my first camp out,” Evans said. “I’ve never done it before so; I thought it was worth it!”
When the restaurant opens at 6 a.m. Thursday, there could be a lot of traffic if past history is any indication. Crowds in Henderson snarled traffic for weeks and the new Las Vegas store is in an equally congested area.
Police and the Nevada Department of Transportation are aware of the possible traffic headache and just say they will be monitoring the situation.