Preview: Chick-fil-A ready to open first Hawaii restaurant on Maui

Fast-food aficionados on Maui are eagerly awaiting Thursday’s opening of Hawaii’s first Chick-fil-A restaurant.

The company offered a media preview Tuesday of the 5,013-square-foot restaurant, located at 14 Hookele Street in the Pu‘unene Shopping Center in a relatively new commercial area being developed on former sugar cane fields in Kahului.

The Chick-fil-A outlet has a dining room with seating for 114, as well as a 900-square-foot patio that seats 46.

Company representatives proudly described the restaurant’s drive-thru service, designed to expedite the process of ordering and pick-up by doing away with the speaker boxes commonly found at most fast-food places. There are two drive-thru lanes, and employees will provide “face-to-face” ordering, walking among the lines of vehicles to take orders using smart tablets and collecting payment before pickup.

Customers indoors can order at the front counter before taking a seat and waiting for their food to be brought to their table. Orders for drive-thru pick-up also can be made on the Chick-fil-A app.

The menu features Chick-fil-A’s signature hand-breaded, fried chicken breast sandwiches, starting at $5.79 alone and $10.29 as a meal, which includes waffle potato fries, Kale Crunch salad or chips, and a beverage. Chicken nuggets start at $5.95 for eight pieces and $10.39 for a meal, and are available breaded or grilled with seven dipping sauces.

Other items include waffle potato fries, Mac & Cheese, salad entrees, kids’ meals, “hand-spun” milkshakes and lemonade made from real lemon juice, cane sugar and water. There’s a breakfast menu as well.

Sean Whaley was selected as the independent owner/operator of the franchise Chick-fil-A on Kahului. Whaley, who moved to Maui in April to launch the restaurant, most recently owned Gandolfo’s New York Deli in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

He said the restaurant was able to hire roughly 160 full- and part-time workers in time for this week’s opening, despite the state’s labor crunch. Starting pay is $18 an hour.

Starting Thursday, Chick-fil-A Kahului will be open for dine-in, drive-thru and carry-out service from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; the restaurant is closed Sundays to carry on a tradition established by the company’s late founder, S. Truett Cathy, in alignment with his Christian faith.

Chick-fil-A, based in College Park, Ga., has more than 2,700 restaurants in 47 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Canada.

The Maui outlet is the state’s first but won’t be the last: The company earlier announced that three Chick-fil-A restaurants on Oahu — in Ala Moana Center, Makiki and Kapolei — are expected to open either later this year or next year as part of a plan to add several more locations across the state in the next five years.