Following a steady influx of customers in recent years, Dawson County’s sole Chick-fil-A will temporarily close for interior renovations after the end of regular business hours on Saturday, Jan. 21, said Director of Human Resources and Training Desi Cavener.

The Power Center Drive location will operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday “or until we run out of food,” said a Jan. 18 post on Chick-fil-A of Dawsonville’s Facebook page. Then as of Monday, Jan. 23, it will be completely closed for the interior renovations. 

The Dawsonville restaurant will remain closed for the next several weeks during the remodel, and employees will be reallocated to the store’s partner location in Dahlonega, Cavener said. 

Operator Tony Kellar owns both the Dahlonega and Dawsonville Chick-fil-A stores. 

These updates mark the first of two planned renovation phases for the Dawsonville location.

“The goal [here] is to create some team-member capacity and help them work a little more efficiently…and make it a little more comfortable for them while they’re working,” Cavener said. “With the capacity of the building and what we have, Chick-fil-A [corporate] is gracious and they see our capacity constraints,” she added.

During the first phase, part of Chick-fil-A’s dining area will be expanded into the glass atrium area. Plans also show an expanded interior space for handling drive-thru orders, according to schematics obtained from Dawson County Planning and Development department.

Cavener said plans are also in the works for the second phase of the remodel, which entails a major update to the restaurant’s parking lot, including its drive-thru lanes. 

It’s not unusual to witness traffic during the Dawsonville Chick-fil-A’s busy times become particularly congested, backing up into the adjacent roundabout. 

The parking lot changes will “ideally alleviate some of the traffic pressure” and “help create some additional capacity for the drive thru,” Cavener added. 

Dawsonville Chick-fil-A staff and management are eager for the interior renovations, Director of Community and Marketing Autumn Meadows said.

Any updates on the renovations and the Dawsonville restaurant’s reopening date will be posted on the restaurant’s Facebook and Instagram pages, Meadows added. 

“Words do not express how thankful we are to have spent the last 20 years serving our community of Dawsonville,” the Chick-fil-A of Dawsonville post added, “ and [we] cannot wait for the next 20 with a new, improved look.”