Rumor: Lawton’s East Side Is Getting A Chick-Fil-A

Before some self-proclaimed journalist fires off an email about me publishing something about a rumor, I'm not a journalist nor am I bound by the rules of journalism. I make fart jokes on the radio and can totally bring up rumors at will.

Over the last few weeks, I've heard the same thing from so many people that I feel it's worth mentioning.

"I heard a new Chick-Fil-A is being built on the East Side, what do you know about it?"

Naturally, being Lawton's most trusted news outlet, people generally ask all of us (Critter, Jeri Anderson, and I) about all the stuff the actual news outlets can't talk about until official and conclusive statements have been cleared by their corporate overlords...

So I went about giving this a little due diligence, calling around to find out if this is true because, let's be honest, there's not much out on the East Side... At least, there's no reason to leave the bounty of the West Side to travel out East.

This is what I found out.

There may be a Chick-Fil-A going in on the East Side of Lawton.

I know, I know... That's not confirmation, but here's the thing. In asking a few people that would absolutely know if it were true or not, while they wouldn't offer a firm "Yes," they also refused to toss out a firm "No."

Nobody confirmed or denied it. I literally hit a wall of "Oh man, I can't tell you about that."

I'd ask "So there's not a Chick-Fil-A planned on the East Side?"

"I'm not the person you should be asking about this."

Doesn't that speak volumes? I would leave it at that but the plot thickens...

As you may know, the Central Mall Chick-Fil-A recently announced they were closing. While the general consensus given was that it was a permanent location closure, the Chick-Fil-A website tells a different story...

Moving beyond rumor into speculation, what if the Central Mall Chick-Fil-A is really just relocating to an infinitely better location on the East Side? Is "Planned Maintenance" code for "Constructing A New Restaurant"?

But wait, there's more to the story and it doesn't just end with the lord's chicken...

In these talks, in the same/nearby location, there was mention of a new Dollar General to be built also. This could mean the East Side has the beginnings of a new little strip mall-ish area.

So where is it? It's a bit complicated.

Of all the people I've talked to about this in running down this rumor, here's another element of the story in which every version told the same.

When it came to where this Chick-Fil-A was supposedly being built, the result was "Next to the trailer park on Flower Mound." If you're familiar with the area, there's undeveloped land around Sherwood Village. Like, ALL around Sherwood Village.

On one hand, there's some real prime land between Gore Boulevard and Sherwood Village... A corner lot on one of the busiest intersections on the East Side... But my sources all insist these two new East Side businesses are building on the North Side of Sherwood Village, in between the mobile home park and Cache Road.

Looks weird on a map, sounds weird saying it out loud, but you can bet no matter where it ends up... an East Side Chick-Fil-A would be absolutely packed in the evenings when our Eastern Lawtonians return home from their jobs in civilization out here to the West.

Still, it's unconfirmed at this point. I haven't found the unknown person everyone says I should be asking about this, and nobody is willing to point me in their direction because "It would be the same as telling" my themselves... I'll keep digging in on this story though, you can't keep this big of a secret for too long.