{"id":457751,"date":"2026-10-06T07:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457751\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T07:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T07:12:10","slug":"new-chick-fil-a-transforms-near-popular-south-texas-flea-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457751\/","title":{"rendered":"New Chick-fil-A transforms near popular South Texas flea market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diners in San Juan, in the Rio Grande Valley, are one step closer to being able to \u201ceat more chiken\u201d as construction of the city\u2019s first-ever Chick-Fil-A<\/a> restaurant nears completion.<\/p>\n

The Monday-through-Saturday chicken chain is going up at a new retail plaza called the Shops at\u00a0Chavez located across the street from one of the Valley\u2019s most popular pulgas, or flea markets, called the Alamo Mercadome. And last week, the San Juan Economic Development Corporation (EDC) took to Facebook to post a sneak peek of what the restaurant looks like so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the outdoor seating area to the indoor play area, things are coming together as they prepare to welcome the San Juan community! Stay tuned, we can\u2019t wait to share more updates as opening day gets closer,\u201d it further reads.<\/p>\n

The photographs show picnic tables and chairs arranged in a seating area outside, as well as a window cling of a cartoon cow beckoning future patrons into the indoor play area. Another photograph shows the play equipment partially assembled. And outside, a sign reads \u201cWelcome friends and neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Juan\u00a0Chick-Fil-A is being built along the westbound side of Interstate 2 and Cesar Chavez Road \u2014 the busy north-south thoroughfare that serves as the dividing line between the cities of San Juan<\/a> and Alamo. On the west side of Cesar Chavez lies the under-construction Chick-Fil-A and the Shops at Chavez, a 100,000-square-foot retail plaza that will one day house a Burlington, Ross Dress For Less, dd\u2019s DISCOUNTS and Boot Barn, according to online commercial real estate marketplace, LoopNet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the east side of Cesar\u00a0Chavez, the Alamo pulga sprawls across 70 acres of land filled with hundreds of vendor stalls and a dance hall that has launched local personalities, like Bronco956<\/a>, into meme-worthy fame online.<\/p>\n

San Juan city leaders first announced the coming\u00a0Chick-Fil-A last summer. At the time, Mayor Maria Garza hailed it as \u201cbig news\u201d for the city of about 35,000 people.<\/p>\n

In the\u00a0EDC\u2019s follow-up post last Tuesday, San Juan residents expressed their enthusiasm for the soon to be opened restaurant, and especially its family-friendly playground.<\/p>\n

\u201cYayyy I\u2019ve been manifesting this for so long lol,\u201d Mariza Vallejo commented on the EDC\u2019s post with a laughing emoji. \u201cHate having to drive to Pharr my special needs boy love love the nuggets,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

But others lamented how they\u2019ll be unable to enjoy the food after shopping at the\u00a0pulga on Sundays, one of the flea market\u2019s busiest days, which is also the day that Chick-Fil-A \u2014 founded by devout Southern Baptist businessman S. Truett Cathy \u2014 remains closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only sad thing is that on Sunday we\u2019re all just going to be staring at Chick\u00a0Fil A from the flea market,\u201d a resident named Felicia Decors commented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diners in San Juan, in the Rio Grande Valley, are one step closer to being able to \u201ceat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[821,1112,2320,820,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-457751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-mysabusiness","tag-mysafood","tag-mysasotx","tag-mysastaff","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}