Dive Brief:
- Chick-fil-A will close its Little Blue Menu location in College Park, Maryland, transitioning it to a traditional Chick-fil-A restaurant in 2027, the company wrote in an email to Restaurant Dive.
- Little Blue Menu was created five years ago as a “test-and-learn concept,” a Chick-fil-A spokesperson said, adding that the concept allowed the company to explore “new ways to serve guests.”
- Chick-fil-A opened its first Little Blue Menu restaurant in 2021 in Nashville, Tennessee, as a way to test virtual concepts with menus that differ from Chick-fil-A’s menu, but closed it in 2023. The College Park location offers items like pizza, burgers and bone-in and boneless wings, for example.
Dive Insight:
Chick-fil-A uses side concepts to test new channels and menu items. Last year, it opened Daybright through its Red Wagon Ventures subsidiary. The concept in Hiram, Georgia, offers a range of smoothies, specialty coffee, ice tea and lemonades. Much like McDonald’s now-defunct spinoff CosMc’s, Daybright is a testing ground for colorful drinks that could appeal to younger generations.
Little Blue Menu provided additional menu and operational insights for Chick-fil-A, which has long tested menu innovation through seasonal offerings. Chick-fil-A’s latest seasonal offerings include Chicken & Waffles Sandwiches, S’mores Milkshakes and S’mores Frosted Coffee, for example. The chain is serving a breakfast sandwich version of the Chicken & Waffles platform, and a larger version as an entree for lunch and dinner, suggesting that it is experimenting with offering breakfast-inspired items across multiple dayparts.
The Little Blue Menu transition could be a reflection of an ongoing trend of chains moving away from virtual-only concepts in favor of dine-in experiences, as many consumers continue to prefer to eat in dining rooms. The company also continues to grow its unit count, with 179 net new restaurants opened in 2025, per its franchise disclosure document. The chain has grown from 2,411 units in 2023 to 2,863 units at the end of 2025.
