Chicken Salad Chick ventures to Lee Branch

A piece of Auburn is coming to Birmingham, and it's clucking.

Chicken Salad Chick opened in 2008 in Auburn, and now the business is dishing out 16 different styles of chicken salad by the pound in 19 locations across the the South. Next up for the business are three to five locations in the Birmingham area.

The first spot, right off US 280 in the Village in Lee Branch, is scheduled to open in early September.

“Birmingham is full of Chicken Salad Chick fans, and we have been searching for quite some time to find a prime location for our fans,” said director of marketing, Ali Rauch. “We needed a pretty large space so that we had enough room to serve that market.”

The location off US 280 is 3,000 square feet with spacious outdoor seating. They expect to seat about 88 people inside with an additional 20 outside.

Rauch said the size of the first location was very important because it will be the only one in the area until the other locations open.

Currently, Chicken Salad Chick is negotiating locations in Homewood and Cahaba Heights for fall opening dates as well as two other possible locations to open by the end of the year.

“[Chicken Salad Chick is] in a great place, but we are really excited for Birmingham because it is so close to Auburn,” Rauch said.  “There are a lot of fans that drive to Auburn or our other locations from Birmingham, so we just know this market—we are going to be able to fulfill the needs of those fans who have been asking for it for a few years now.”