Chick-fil-A Fish Sandwich

Posted on December 31, 1969

Fish-fil-A? Catholics rejoice! But are good news or bad news in store for Elon students?

In honor of Lent, the fast food giant Chick-fil-A has begun offering a fish sandwich on their menu. The chain started testing certain markets with its fish offering back in 2015. It seems that it has been popular enough that Chick-fil-A released a story in the news section of their website, The Chicken Wire, announcing the seasonal menu item. The sandwich features cod, a rather popular fish with a mild flavor and flaky, white flesh. Chick-fil-A says they will offer the Fish Sandwich and the Deluxe Fish Sandwich, with cheese, lettuce, and tomato, during the entire Lenten season, having started on Ash Wednesday and all the way through the Saturday before Easter (since Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday).

Elon students were immediately excited when they heard the news. Some had even started to plan a Friday fish party at the local franchise. However, it was quickly pointed out that Chick-fil-A's Fish Sandwich would only be available in select markets. Chick-fil-A's own news release stated, "Be sure to confirm with your local restaurant that it is offering these entrees." Father Peter Tremblay, the Associate Chaplain for Catholic Life at Elon University, commented, "Abstaining from meat on Fridays during Lent is a very important practice for Catholic Christians as well as Christians from other denominations. We always try to make things as easy as possible for our students, so we wanted to get to the bottom of this."

Director of Catholic Life, T Huynh-Duc, began the investigation. He called the local Chick-fil-A located on Garden Road in Burlington and was able to speak to a manager who oversaw both the Garden Road location and the University Drive location. Unfortunately, he received the bad news: neither location in Burlington would offer the Fish Sandwich this Lent.

Undeterred, Huynh-Duc asked if the manager knew of any Chick-fil-As in the Greensboro or Triangle areas that offered the sandwich, but the apologetic response was that each Chick-fil-A is individually owned and operated and that she didn't have a list of who would be offering the sandwich. She did, however, suggest that he might be able to use Chick-fil-A's mobile app to see if the sandwich was on any other location's menu. Huynh-Duc thanked her for her time, but he had more work to do.

He called two locations in Greensboro and an additional location in the Raleigh-Durham area. The news was the same: the Chick-fil-A Fish Sandwich was not being offered. Huynh-Duc then pulled up the Chick-fil-A app on his phone and looked up the menus in more locations in Greensboro, but again, none of them seemed to offer the pescatarian entree.

Upon hearing the news, CCM President Mikey Lee was also disappointed. "It's so sad," she shared. Another student, senior Emily Keller said, "I just had such high hopes."

It looks like Elon students, once again, will have to fall back on McDonald's reliable Filet-o-Fish.