Chick-fil-A to celebrate 2,000th restaurant with free breakfast

Area Chick-fil-A restaurants will join with the chain's locations across Illinois to celebrate Chick-fil-A opening its 2,000th location with a free breakfast giveaway on Tuesday, March 8.

Chick-fil-A's restaurants (excluding licensee locations) throughout Chicagoland will give a free three-count Chick-fil-A Chick-n-Mini to each guest between 6:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8. Chick-n-Minis are bite-sized Chick-fil-A chicken nuggets nestled inside a mini yeast roll brushed with honey butter.

There is no purchase necessary and one per customer.

The Chick-fil-A breakfast giveaway is two days before the chain opens its first stand-alone restaurant in Springfield on March 10. The chain opened its first Illinois location inside White Oaks Mall in 1980 and welcomed guests to that location until it closed in 1995 as consumer trends toward on-the-go dining focused the chain's expansion efforts on stand-alone restaurants.

The suburban area's first Chick-fil-A arrived in 2010 in Aurora and the chain has continued to expand in the area to 24 locations, including opening two restaurants in downtown Chicago. The most recent opening took place in Countryside on March 3.

The March 10 opening in Springfield will be Chick-fil-A's 2,000th location nationwide and the 37th in Illinois for the chain which got its start in 1967 inside an Atlanta mall.