Restaurant expands food offerings to area office buildings

Chick-fil-A Westlake is in the planning stages to add lunchtime service for two office buildings in the Westlake-area—The Barton Skyway Center, 1221 S. MoPac, Austin, and Cielo Center, 1250 S. Capital of Texas Hwy., West Lake Hills—said Westlake-area resident Brandon Fokken.

Fokken, who is married to Chick-fil-A Marketing Director Erika Fokken, came up with the idea.

The program launched Sept. 30 in the lobby of the Plaza on the Lake office complex, 5001 Plaza on the Lake, Austin and expanded Dec. 1 to include Barton Oaks Plaza, 901 S. MoPac, Austin.

During its lunchtime rush, the Westlake location has customers filling the restaurant space and lining up outside the door, Brandon Fokken said. There are two drive-thru lanes serviced by runners with headsets who bring orders from the kitchen to cars in line, he said.

"There was no room to bring more people into the Chick-fil-A [building]," he said. "So I wanted to bring Chick-fil-A to where the people are."

Brandon Fokken said he worked with Allan Williams, who owns the Westlake and Barton Creek Square Mall Chick-fil-A restaurants, to contact management companies of office buildings where employees were isolated from restaurants at lunchtime.

"It's more than a transaction," Brandon Fokken said. "It's a relationship. We wanted to bring the Chick-fil-A experience to them."

The pair initially set up a stand in the lobby of Plaza on the Lake I and offered free chicken sandwiches to determine the interest of the site's employees.

"We were awestruck at the number of people who showed up and how happy they were [that we were there]," Brandon Fokken said.

The arrangement was extended, and Chick-fil-A Westlake now rotates on Wednesdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. between the site's two office buildings.

Brandon Fokken said Plaza on the Lake is in the permit process with the city of Austin to build a permanent area for the lunch service, and he is negotiating with other vendors to provide breakfast services. No food preparation is performed on-site, he said.

Brandon Fokken said some companies contract to buy lunch for their employees on the days Chick-fil-A Westlake is serving at their building. With heavy traffic in the area, it is more cost-effective to buy lunch on-site rather than have workers leave the premises, he said.

"That extra time it takes employees to get food is extremely expensive [for companies]," Brandon Fokken said. "It's a very creative solution to an age-old problem. The future of lunch food service is in the office buildings; it's bringing food to the people."