Now comes Chicken Salad Chick, a restaurant that serves a variety of salads chicken. Why do I keep thinking of the old Saturday Night Live skit where Gilda Radner worked in the Scotch-tape Store at the mall?
CSC is a franchise that started in Auburn, Ala., by Stacy M. Brown, a self-confessed chicken salad junkie and the chick of the name. What started as a business that operated out of her kitchen and moved to a real restaurant after someone turned Brown into the health department has blossomed into a franchise with a few dozen locations, all in the South (and Florida). Orlando’s Chicken Salad Chick is in the Plaza at University at Alafaya Trail across from UCF.
So the concept is that there are 15 or so kinds of tape, I mean chicken salad, from the classic, which for some reason is called the Classic Carol instead of the Standard Stacy, to versions with hot peppers (Jalapeno Holly), apples and grapes (Fruity Fran) and onions (Dixie Chick, also described on the menu as “our most offensive salad”).
If you’re unsure whether you’d like a particular salad, the person at the ordering counter will be happy to give you a sample, apparently for as many of the salads you’d like if the woman ahead of me was any indication. Ask for enough samples and you can’t just excuse yourself without ordering and waddle away quite full.
I only considered that for a moment. I did have a taste of the Jalapeno Holly, but didn’t want all that hotness. Instead, I selected the Chick Trio that included a sampler of three salads of my choice (I think that’s why they call it a trio), choosing the Classic Carol, the Buffalo Barclay, which the menu says is the one to get if you’re craving wings, and the Sassy Scotty, just because I liked the sound and the theory of it.
I sort of thought the selections would be served as sandwiches, but instead they were presented as scoops on top of a lettuce leaf that clearly was not meant to be confused as part of the salad and some crackers. A pickle spear was also offered.
They were all just fine, though I think I might have been happier with the jalapeno tinged salad, maybe instead of the Buffalo Barclay (if you’re craving wings, go find yourself some wings).
The Scotty was sassed up with ranch dressing, bacon and cheddar cheese. I’ve seen sassier. Hell, I’ve been sassier.
You can order a combo like I did or choose a sandwich. All of the salads are available by the pound, which apparently is what the woman in front of me was going for, one sample at a time.
Order at the counter to dine in or take out. Someone will bring your order to you when it’s gathered together.
If you’re not a chicken salad kind of chick or chap, the menu also offers a roast beef, turkey or ham sandwich. But seriously, if you’d go to a place called Chicken Salad Chick and order a roast beef sandwich you’d probably go to a place called Chicken Salad Chick when you really wanted Buffalo wings.
Chicken Salad Chick is at 12101 University Blvd., Orlando. It’s open for lunch and early dinner (closes at 7 p.m.) daily. The phone number is 407-867-4900.
