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How Chicken Salad Chick is shaking up the menu with its first warm sandwich

CMO Tom Carr describes the new Chick Melt and the chain’s drive to innovate while continuing to please its many chicken salad-loving customers.

Patricia Cobe, Senior Editor

September 7, 2023

Chicken Salad Chick started with one recipe created by an Alabama mom and has grown to more than 225 restaurants across the South, with units now open in Colorado and the Midwest as well. Its menu features more than a dozen variations of chicken salad, many named after their female creators or fans.

Now, the chain has introduced its first warm sandwich: the Chick Melt. Based on a tuna melt but filled with—you guessed it, chicken salad—it’s the latest example of Chicken Salad Chick’s continuing drive to innovate the menu while staying true to its roots.

CMO Tom Carr, who is very involved in the culinary side of the business, describes the new melts and the clever marketing campaign built around their launch.

Tom Carr
CMO Tom Carr

Listen as he talks about Chicken Salad Chick’s successful franchise model and how the chain is on a mission to grow catering, and reveals whether there will ever be another sandwich filling on the menu besides chicken salad.

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About the Author

Patricia Cobe

Senior Editor

Pat plans and executes the menu sections of Restaurant Business and FoodService Director, covering food and beverage trends, Menu R&D, profiles of chefs and restaurateurs and Technomic research. She also contributes to the digital content of both RB and FSD and is editor of two weekly e-newsletters, Recipe Report and On the Menu. Pat’s weekly podcast, MenuFeed, covers a wide range of menu topics through interviews with chefs and operators.

Pat came to Winsight from Hearst, where she was an executive editor. She is the co-author of the Mompreneurs series of books as well as two cookbooks. She graduated from Cornell University and earned a Masters in Journalism from Boston University. She is active in several professional organizations, including Les Dames d’Escoffier and the International Foodservice Editorial Council (IFEC), and serves as a judge for the James Beard Media Awards.

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