WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA — Walnut Creek’s newest Chick-fil-A has (perhaps strangely) live flowers on the tables, a covered patio and a surprisingly cheery dining room with plenty of familiar red accents.
But the talk of the town before the new place went in was all about something the restaurant doesn’t have.
There’s no drive-thru.
The new-ish Chick-Fil-A at 2290 Oak Grove Road, in the Citrus Marketplace shopping center, opened earlier this year. Its January opening brought another Chick-fil-A to Walnut Creek, this time under local owner-operator Kaylee Thornton.
Now that it’s up and running, I finally stopped by to look inside — and to look into the unusual design decision behind it.
A Cozy Dining Room and a Covered Patio
From the street, the new restaurant looks pretty familiar. There’s a red Chick-fil-A logo above the entrance, with stone accents along the lower walls and a projecting roof overhead.
It’s got a vaguely Mission Revival/Craftsman-ish style look to it, like much else in the Bay Area.
Inside, wood paneling, red pendant lights and red chairs look more living-room-esque than your typical fast food place. Booths and freestanding tables provide different seating options, while black-framed dividers break up the space.
Compared to the more utilitarian original WC restaurant on North Main, this feels more like it’s trying to be your living room.
Whether that’s a pleasant addition–or one intended to trick you into forgetting you’re eating fast food–is presumably for the individual visitor to decide!
There are small touches, too, that seem intended to set this apart from typical fast food. Red flowers (real ones) sit in a vase on a table. A tabletop September calendar advertises activities including Bingo Night and Spirit Day. I’ve never attended a fast food Bingo night before, or even imagined the existence of such a thing.
At the counter, digital menu boards stretch above the ordering area, with the kitchen visible behind employees.
Outside, a long covered patio runs alongside the building. Metal tables and chairs sit beneath a dark overhead structure, with landscaping between the seating area and the street. It’s dog friendly!
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The Missing Drive-Thru
The one thing that’s missing is the one thing that usually marks a restaurant as “fast food”: the ubiquitous line of cars waiting to pull up and grab their nuggets.
The city reportedly approved the restaurant in 2024 after multiple public hearings. Traffic concerns helped shape the decision to proceed without a drive-thru, with the aim of avoiding the long vehicle queues associated with the existing North Main Street location.
That was a controversial decision. Some locals welcomed the decision to build without a drive-thru, and felt that it set a good precedent for the terms on which the city should accept new fast food places. Others felt it was an inconvenience for workers and parents who need a way to order without getting out of the car.
No drive-thru doesn’t mean every customer has to enter the dining room–you can still order curbside. The new restaurant seems to have devoted lots of space to their curbside delivery, perhaps to compensate for the missing drive-thru.
For those who do head inside, you’ll still find the staples of any Chick-Fil-A; the variety of sauces, solidly tasty tenders, and cheeky references to the fact that the restaurant doesn’t serve beef.
Chick-fil-A Oak Grove & Citrus is at 2290 Oak Grove Road in Walnut Creek. It is closed Sundays (which is a topic for a whole other discussion).
