{"id":63385,"date":"2026-03-05T15:10:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:10:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=63385"},"modified":"2026-03-05T15:11:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T20:11:03","slug":"that-is-a-classic-full-circle-moment-for-kara-kirkland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/03\/05\/that-is-a-classic-full-circle-moment-for-kara-kirkland\/","title":{"rendered":"That is a classic “full circle” moment for Kara Kirkland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That is a classic “full circle” moment! Kara Kirkland<\/strong>, a Lakeland native who once donned the famous “Eat Mor Chikin” cow suit as a mascot, officially opened her own Chick-fil-A franchise today, March 5, 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The new restaurant is located at 6875 Florida Ave S (at Shepherd Road)<\/strong> in South Lakeland. This opening is particularly special because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Hometown Roots:<\/strong> Kirkland is a local who grew up in the area, making this a true homecoming.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The “Cow to Career” Journey:<\/strong> Her career began in the trenches (and the plush fur) of the mascot suit, working her way up through the ranks to become an independent Owner-Operator.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Economic Impact:<\/strong> The new location is expected to bring approximately 100 new jobs<\/strong> to the Lakeland community.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Opening Details<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    Feature<\/strong><\/td>Details<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/thead>
    Location<\/strong><\/td>6875 Florida Ave S, Lakeland, FL 33813<\/td><\/tr>
    Opening Date<\/strong><\/td>March 5, 2026<\/td><\/tr>
    Operating Hours<\/strong><\/td>6:00 AM \u2013 10:00 PM (Monday\u2013Saturday)<\/td><\/tr>
    Services<\/strong><\/td>Dine-in, Drive-thru, and Mobile Ordering<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The site joins several other new developments in the area, including a massive $150 million Chick-fil-A distribution center recently announced for Polk County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    That is a classic “full circle” moment! Kara Kirkland, a Lakeland native who once donned the famous “Eat Mor Chikin” cow suit as a mascot, officially opened her own Chick-fil-A… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTItMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD0yNzUlMkMxODMmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJUaGF0IGlzIGEgY2xhc3NpYyAmIzgyMjA7ZnVsbCBjaXJjbGUmIzgyMjE7IG1vbWVudCBmb3IgS2FyYSBLaXJrbGFuZCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.KafjzDMwUfn-O2gIosGbXLXqvmjd9Gsk9EhB7CvXUxsMQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13935],"class_list":["post-63385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-that-is-a-classic-full-circle-moment-for-kara-kirkland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63387,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63385\/revisions\/63387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}