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After nearly 5 months of being closed, Chick-fil-A in Alabaster has completed its renovations and is back to business as usual. (Reporter photos/Noah Wortham)

By NOAH WORTHAM | Staff Writer

ALABASTER – After nearly five months of being closed, Chick-fil-A in Alabaster has completed its renovations and is back to business as usual.

The Alabaster Chick-fil-A location previously closed on Sept. 21 for a remodel. On Thursday, Feb. 9, Chick-fil-A held a soft re-opening with a return to normal hours on Friday, Feb. 10.

“Everybody’s just so excited, and the guests are excited and the team’s excited to be back,” Owner and operator Constantine Zouboukos said.

The Alabaster location now boasts improvements to multiple areas. The drive-thru now has canopies with fans and heaters to provide relief to the workers outside. One drive-thru window also functions as a door to aid in providing service.

“Right now, we average over 200 cars in an hour at lunch,” Zouboukos said. “ Our record is 285 cars, and that’s basically about one car for every 12 and a half seconds. The Alabaster store ranks really high in the drive-thru chainwide and this will just help enhance it and make it even better.”

The store also features several improvements to the kitchen so that workers can adequately provide for drive-thru and the dine-in guests efficiently.

“It’s like a well-oiled machine,” Zouboukos said. “I always look for bottlenecks and bottlenecks (are) where there’s a slowdown in the system. Whether it’s the kitchen not keeping up, the baggers not being able to keep up or the drink makers not be able to keep up.”

Zouboukos said that the new improvements help limit those bottlenecks.

“Our stores have always been at least 65 percent drive-thru, but it seemed like all of the equipment was set up right before the front counter in the dining room,” he said. “With that new cockpit that we added in the drive-thru, we’re self-sufficient in the drive-thru now and (we’re) not having to waste steps to go behind the counter to grab something for drive-thru each time.”

Improvements have also been made to the restaurant’s dining area.

The Alabaster Chick-fil-A is located at 125 Colonial Promenade Pkwy, Alabaster, AL 35007. The business is open Monday through Saturday from 6:00 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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