Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Dan Cathy, president and chief operating officer for Chick-fil-A, delivers food to Lisa Dennis (right), and Di Ann Sites during lunch at the chain's new restaurant on Southern Hills Drive in Roanoke. "It's our first time in here, and we get waited on by the president of the company. How cool," Dennis said.

Dan Cathy certainly didn't look like the typical corporate executive.

During a Thursday visit to Roanoke's newest Chick-fil-A, he refilled patrons' beverages and took up their trays, in between lunching with area managers and signing his boyhood photo hanging on the restaurant's walls

Cathy is the president and chief operating officer of Chick-fil-A and son of the fast food chicken chain's founder, Truett Cathy.

He said he likes to visit all new Chick-fil-As. But he couldn't make the May 1 opening at the restaurant's new Southern Hills Drive location.

Roanoke was his third stop of the day on Thursday, after Norfolk and Baltimore.

In 2007, Chick-fil-A ranked No. 2 in sales, at $2.6 billion, behind Kentucky Fried Chicken in the fast-food chicken segment, according to food industry firm Technomic.

The Atlanta-based company is known for operating its business under biblical principles, including closing its restaurants on Sundays.

He spoke briefly with The Roanoke Times about the chain that his father founded in 1967, the effect of the economy on business, his views on closing on Sundays, speed at the drive-through and work force diversity.

Q: More fast food restaurants, such as McDonald's, have $1 menus. Does Chick-fil-A plan to create this kind of menu?

A: No. We're not competing on price. We're competing on service and our product quality. ... Our customer is really value conscious, but we're trying to really give them a lot of value for what they're paying for.

Q: How have rising food costs affected Chick-fil-A?

A: We've had a price adjustment that we had to make. It was almost 5 percent that we made on May 19. ... That was our new menu pricing on our menu boards. Some of our costs actually went up even more than that on some items. Some [menu] items went up a little more than others did.

Q: What is the largest meal in sales volume a day at most Chick-fil-As?

A: In most markets, lunch is the strongest period for us, followed by dinner. ... We actually see that breakfast is the fastest growing day part that we have nationally right now. People are becoming accustomed to thinking about Chick-fil-A as a breakfast alternative.

In fact, I would say that McDonald's' chicken and biscuit national promotion they had, that really helped, I think, broaden the potential customer base. Most people are thinking about chicken and biscuits and similar items like we have on our menu, as an alternative.

Q: As far as getting customers through your drive-through, is 90 seconds your goal time?

A: Yes, or better. You can do the math on it. We have restaurants that regularly do 120 to 140 cars per hour. So, that's way less than 60 seconds there.

Q: Will you ever open Chick-fil-As Sundays?

A: My dad says it's the best business decision that he ever made. And we concur with that.

But my brother and my younger sister, we signed a covenant agreement between the three of us that we're going to be closed on Sunday for at least one more generation. I like to tell people that our food tastes better on Monday, because we're closed on Sunday.

Q: Are tomatoes back on your menu, after the recent salmonella outbreak?

A: We pulled them right when it happened. We'll probably have tomatoes back on our menu pretty soon.

Q: Does Chick-fil-A hire employees and franchise owners of different faiths?

A: We have the whole spectrum of faiths that are represented at Chick-fil-A. Our corporate purpose is to impact people's lives.

Actually, our corporate purpose is to glorify God by being a faithful steward to all that's entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.