Pollo Tropical Opens Its First Store in Georgia

A line of people wrapped around the parking lot at on Duluth Highway, waiting for the Caribbean restaurant to open it's doors Tuesday morning. 

The Miami-based chain chose unincorporated Lawrenceville for its first Georgia location for a number of reasons. Kim Miller, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, said those criteria included location—with its proximity to Highway 316, , and shopping centers—visibility and demographics.

 “Pollo Tropical has roots in the Latin population in this area,” said Miller. The latest Census revealed that , with the Hispanic or Latino population growing from 64,137 in 2000 to 162,035 in 2010. Miller also noted that there are a great number of residents in the Lawrenceville area who are familiar with the chain, having lived in Miami or other areas in Florida where the restaurant is well known.

That included Ricardo Medrano, the first customer in line. Medrano is originally from Nicaragua and but was raised in Miami. He now lives in Commerce, GA and drove an hour to get his meal. He brought his toddler daughter along with him. Believe it or not, this was not the little girl’s first time sampling the food. “We go to Orlando sometimes, so she likes it already,” said Medrano.

Camped out in a folding chair waiting to get her first taste was Tammy Dixon from Lawrenceville. Dixon said she first heard about the restaurant opening from Lawrenceville Patch. Her aunt and neighbor both lived in south Florida at one time but now live in Georgia and told her she had to give it a try. Both were also in line far behind her. Dixon originally got to the restaurant at 8:30am after dropping her children off at school. Since there wasn’t a long line when she arrived, she decided to go shopping instead. “I got back, got in my car and waited and saw people starting to get out and said ‘Oh my goodness! Let me get in line before I lose my spot!’”

Although the restaurant is located just yards away from Lawrenceville city limits, still came out to welcome Pollo Tropical to the community and take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony. “This restaurant is actually the first of its kind in Georgia, so the fact that they chose Gwinnett County and they chose Lawrenceville is wonderful,” said Johnson.

Pollo Tropical hired about 100 people to open this new restaurant. The Georgia Department of Labor held a job fair in July to help the chain find cashiers, cooks, servers and more. 

Medrano, Dixon and 98 others were rewarded for their time spent waiting in line for the ribbon to be cut. Pollo Tropical gave a certificate for a free family meal to the first 100 customers to walk through the doors. Those customers were also entered to win free Pollo Tropical chicken for a year.