Chick-fil-A Hosts Friday Night Slumber Party in Midtown

Hordes of people showed up to New York's first free-standing Chick-fil-A yesterday afternoon in the hopes of winning a year of free chicken sandwiches.  But only 100 New Yorkers were awarded that Southern fried prize. After being alerted of their rankings in the line around 7 p.m., these people then camped out inside the restaurant all night.  Some of them slept, using Chick-fil-A blankets to keep themselves warm, while other watched Night at the Museum on a screen across the street from the restaurant. At the crack of dawn, the restaurant opened to the general public, and the superfans got their first taste of those free chicken sandwiches.

(It's perhaps worth noting that, according to the official rules of the contest, the winners get one meal per week, not unlimited food whenever they want. So, the real cash value of this prize is probably...somewhere in the ballpark of $500 to $600.)

New York's first-ever real deal Chick-fil-A is now open for business. Here are scenes from the pre-opening madness.

Chick-fil-A is opening its first location in NYC tomorrow, and already people are waiting in line in the cold rain. pic.twitter.com/kRVb0RpynV

— Andrea Lillo (@alillo) October 2, 2015

Boom! #nyccfa #CFAFirst100 @ChickfilA we did it! pic.twitter.com/h3OFl92RvK

— conzor (@conzor) October 3, 2015

Blanket time #nyccfa #chickfila #newyork #Manhattan

A video posted by Jp (@doitforblink) on Oct 2, 2015 at 6:46pm PDT

Yes, this is a @ChickfilA blanket!!! #NYCCFA #CFAFirst100 pic.twitter.com/9BvB4KkhTf

— Michael Eng (@flightmike) October 3, 2015

Here's a video of the 100 lucky line-waiters being told that they won:

#LastNight. That #proud moment when you realize this is really happening. Lol #Winner #First100 #ChickFilA #NYCCFA #free meals for a year!!!

A video posted by Quoia (@miss_quoia) on Oct 3, 2015 at 7:31am PDT

The winners were taken inside for the night, to wait till the official opening:

#cfanyc Chick-Fil-A first 100 winners warming up. Stoked to spend the night in here for this social experiment #newyorkshottestclub

A video posted by Matt Gorman (@mattgorman) on Oct 2, 2015 at 4:34pm PDT

They were also given sleep masks and cookies:

Cookies and stylish Chick-fil-a eye masks? Now we're talking. #blessed #businessclass #cfanyc pic.twitter.com/qiTaL1p9yv

— Matt Gorman (@mtg543) October 3, 2015

And they got to watch Night at the Museum projected on a screen across the street from the restaurant, with individual headsets:

(SIDENOTE: Movie is in HD, just didn't get a good pic.) What better way to cap off the first ever NYC First 100 than with a movie being shown across the street and everyone getting their own personal headsets on which to listen to the movie? @chickfila today was absolutely TOP NOTCH and I can't wait to introduce you to the rest of NYC tomorrow morning at 6:30AM!!!!!! #NYCCFA #ActivatingIdeas #SleepTime #IKindaWannaMoveToNYC

A photo posted by Chris Rich (@chrisfrich) on Oct 2, 2015 at 9:14pm PDT

Some people crashed, though:

When you need sleep, but everybody else still too hype about winning FREE @chickfila for a year!! #NYCCFA #ActivatingIdeas #ANDYOUGETABLANKET #EVERYBODYGETSABLANKET

A photo posted by Chris Rich (@chrisfrich) on Oct 2, 2015 at 9:19pm PDT

Winners!

Just camped out and won free Chick-Fil-A for a year! #nyccfa #cfafirst100

A photo posted by Inman Porter (@inmanporter) on Oct 3, 2015 at 3:36am PDT