Chick-fil-A breakfast brings hordes of students to Gamecock Park

There are a few things that USC students look forward to each year: Gamecock football, Chicken Finger Wednesdays and free movies at the Russell House — not to mention picking up that first issue of The Daily Gamecock. But this year, students were welcomed back to campus with a highly anticipated meal plan addition: breakfast at Chick-fil-A. The newest breakfast option brought in nearly 400 customers per hour on the first day of classes, according to Fred Wencel, general manager of Carolina Dining Services,. “We knew it would do well,” Wencel said. “[Einstein Bros Bagels] is real popular, but we wanted to get a new breakfast option upstairs, because Einstein’s was becoming so overrun.” Carolina Dining expects that sales will vary based on the day of the week. Classes that only meet twice a week, mainly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, are expected to bring in fewer people. “Monday-Wednesday-Friday is significantly different from Tuesday-Thursday,” Wencel said. And a tip from Wencel: The main rush will likely fall right between 10 and 10:15 a.m. Students flocked to Gamecock Park on the second floor of Russell House to gorge on chicken biscuits, hash browns and Chick-n-Minis. On his first day of college classes, first-year music education student Ian Giocondo headed to Chick-fil-A, only to find a line that stretched all the way down to Einstein’s. “The line was ridiculous. I don’t know why I waited in it,” Giocondo said. “It’s kind of sketch, but it’s delish.” Jake Mann, a first-year music performance student, agreed, saying he thought the line was full of people who were all there for Chick-fil-A’s breakfast, adding that the chicken biscuits were “delicious.” Despite the long wait and massive crowds, hordes of students waited for an early morning biscuit. Carolina Dining worked with both Student Government and the Sodexo Student Board in order to bring the breakfast option, which Student Government had been requesting for at least four years. “Every year we talk about what they would like us to do over the summer, and the decision was to change out Burger King for Fresh Burger and this,” Wencel said. “It’s all about listening to what our customers want us to do.”