Chick-fil-A Bar W

Opening week came with a $25,000 food bank donation and a parking lot full of people in cow spots

Chick-fil-A's newest Central Texas location opened its doors Thursday, Oct. 29, at 6 a.m., tucked into the Bar W Marketplace shopping center off Kauffman Loop. The 5,030-square-foot restaurant with a drive thru sits at the Bar W Marketplace shopping center, which also features an H-E-B grocery store. If you've been watching the construction fence come down out here near the Leander-Liberty Hill-Georgetown border, this is what it was for.

The story. A new Chick-fil-A restaurant began serving the Liberty Hill-Leander community at its newest location on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at 6 a.m., located at 400 Kauffman Loop. Owner-operator David Snow is a native Texan who attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he played football before pursuing a professional career in the National Football League, and after injuries led him to retire from football, he began considering what was next. He found his way into Chick-fil-A instead. In 2015, Snow joined Chick-fil-A as a Team Member to learn the business from the ground up, and in 2017, he was selected as a local Owner-Operator. As he put it in the company's announcement, "My family and I have deep ties to the Austin area, so we're grateful for the opportunity to return and serve the growing Leander and Liberty Hill communities."

The opening wasn't just about chicken sandwiches. The new location donated $25,000 to Central Texas Food Bank, created about 70 jobs and joined Chick-fil-A's surplus food donation program. That surplus-food piece is part of a bigger national push — the restaurant is participating in the Chick-fil-A Shared Table program, which redirects surplus food to local nonprofits, helping to create over 50 million meals nationwide to date.

The vibe. This is a from-scratch build in a brand-new retail corridor, so expect the current-generation Chick-fil-A layout: double drive-thru lanes, a dining room built for the lunch rush, and a parking lot that was, on opening morning, reportedly full of neighbors in cow costumes angling for a free meal. Snow and his team marked the opening with a Moove-In Party, inviting the community to show up in cow spots — whether a full cow suit or just a cow-spotted accessory — with anyone who did redeeming one free entrée or kid's meal, inside or in the drive-thru.

What to order. It's Chick-fil-A, so you know the lineup: the classic Chicken Sandwich, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, Chicken Nuggets with a sauce flight, the Cobb Salad, and Waffle Potato Fries on the side. Breakfast regulars can lean on the Chicken Biscuit, Egg White Grill or the 4-count Chick-n-Minis, all part of the opening-day breakfast offer lineup. Wash it down with the Frosted Lemonade if you're feeling indulgent.

Good to know. The dining room serves guests Monday through Saturday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the drive-thru remaining open until 10 p.m., and the restaurant offers dine-in, drive-thru, carry-out and third-party delivery. Like every Chick-fil-A, it's closed Sundays. This location brought real employment with it, too — the opening is creating approximately 70 jobs in a corridor that's growing fast between Leander, Liberty Hill and Georgetown.

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