Chick-fil-A Restaurant Opens on Busy Stretch of Lake Avenue

There are close to 120,000 applicants each year for a Chick-Fil-A franchise. Of those, only about 100 are chosen.

But Aodobi Gwacham has now become a multi-owner, defying the odds and opening her second Pasadena Chick-fil-A store in a former Carls’ Jr. location, just off the intersection of Lake and Boylston Street. The busy block is thick with casual dining restaurants from KFC next door, to Pollo Uniqo, Starbucks, Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, McDonald’s, and a Del Taco, all within a moment’s walk. 

Nearly a hundred team members, friends, corporate colleagues, and elected official representatives, a Chick-fil-A cow mascot, and members of the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce,  joined Gwacham and several family members for a ribbon cutting ceremony on Wednesday. 

According to Gwacham, her two stores now support 250 team members. 

“That’s a lot, I know,” Gwacham said, addressing the crowd, “but I am proud to lead them and to be their steward, and to help them as they continue to grow.”

“This was my second job ever when I was 17,” explained the Nigerian native, the oldest daughter in a family of five children.  “I just wanted to help my family.”   

She began her career at the Chino Hills store, as the chain’s first free-standing restaurant ever, and she slowly and very surely climbed the ladder since then. All of this while playing basketball at Cal Baptist University and earning an advanced degree in Leadership from Azusa Pacific University.

“I remember walking in, on that first day in 2004, and I just felt at home,” she said, following the ribbon cutting.  

“This is probably where I belong,” she said. “I felt that the people really cared for me. About six months into it, I thought, ‘Maybe there is something more to this.’”

She began researching franchises and talking to corporate staff and began thinking that ownership was something possible. 

Though she was studying nursing, she switched to a business major, and after graduation, found herself in the corporate offices of Chick-fil-A in Atlanta, Georgia.

She assumed a leadership role in opening new restaurants around the country, eventually supervising the opening of about 120 restaurants, all over the country. 

Make that 122. 

Following the official ribbon cutting, each of the hundred or so guests was presented with a chicken sandwich, for a “First Bite” ceremony, all of them chomping down at once. It likely won’t be their last bite.

Chick-fil-A is at 774 North Lake Avenue, Pasadena, CA.