Chick-fil-A, Inc. has selected Derek Schiefer as the local franchise owner of the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Kirkland, which is slated to open for business this August.
Schiefer will oversee day-to-day activities of the business, employing approximately 120 full- and part-time team members, cultivating relationships with local schools, organizations and neighboring businesses and serving guests.
The restaurant, formally named Chick-fil-A at Totem Lake, is located at 12106 N.E. 124th St. and will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
Meet the owner
Schiefer relocated to Kirkland with his wife, Christina, and their two children to open the city’s first Chick-fil-A.
Schiefer started as a part-time team member at Chick-fil-A while earning his degree in economics at Auburn University. It was in Alabama, while working as a team member, that Schiefer realized he wanted to pursue a full-time career with Chick-fil-A.
After graduating in 2007, Schiefer took part in Chick-fil-A’s leadership development program, where he managed Chick-fil-A restaurants in Jonesboro, Ark., and Meridian, Miss., and helped to open other restaurants.
In 2010, Schiefer was named the franchise owner of a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Jackson, Miss., and later relocated to a restaurant in Tallahassee, Fla., where he worked for the past four years. While he and his family have loved their time in the Southeast, they are excited for the opportunity to serve the Kirkland community.
“Chick-fil-A has always served as a home for me and my family, and that is something I am proud to bring to Kirkland,” Schiefer said in a press release. “My family and I are thrilled to introduce Chick-fil-A to our neighbors and look forward to serving this great community for many years to come.”
Team member investment
To help its team members pay for college, the restaurant will offer the opportunity for college scholarships through Chick-fil-A’s newly announced national scholarship initiative, Remarkable Futures. Remarkable Futures more than doubles the company’s investment in team members’ college educations, providing $4.9 million in scholarships in 2017 alone.
Students have the opportunity to receive up to $25,000 in scholarships to be applied at any accredited institution of their choice, including online and on-campus formats, and can be combined with tuition discounts and other benefits at more than 70 partner colleges and universities nationwide.
For more information on Remarkable Futures, visit chick-fil-a.com/scholarships.
Fresh, local ingredients
Nearly everything on the Chick-fil-A menu is made from scratch daily, including salads made from fresh vegetables and fruits that are hand-chopped throughout the day. The lemonade is fresh-squeezed and is made from three simple ingredients: lemon, sugar and water.
Like all Chick-fil-A restaurants, the chicken served in Kirkland will be 100-percent whole breast meat, without any fillers, hormones or additives. Each chicken breast is hand-breaded to order and pressure cooked in 100-percent refined peanut oil, which is naturally trans-fat- and cholesterol-free. By the end of 2019, every Chick-fil-A restaurant will serve chicken raised without antibiotics.
Chick-fil-A at Totem Lake will partner with regional farmers and suppliers to source as many locally- and regionally-grown ingredients as possible. Chick-fil-A currently sources all potatoes used to make hash browns and waffle potato fries from the Columbia River basin, buying more than 430 million pounds of potatoes last year alone.
Additionally, all of the apples used to supply Chick-fil-A’s West Region are grown in Washington State. As a chain, Chick-fil-A purchased more than 2 million pounds of apples that were grown in Washington last year.
More information, including the opportunity to apply for a job at the Totem Lake location, can be found at cfakirkland.com.
This is taken from a Chick-fil-A press release.
Kirkland resident Derek Schiefer is the operator and local franchise owner of the Chick-fil-A at Totem Lake. Photo courtesy of Chick-fil-A
