A national fried chicken chain is giving the St. Louis area a first crack at its latest restaurant design, with work on a brand-new prototype set to kick off this month. Instead of tweaking an older building, the company plans to put up the updated model from the ground up, a move it has not attempted before with this prototype. That puts St. Louis on the short list of early test markets for a format the chain hopes to deploy more broadly.
According to the St. Louis Business Journal, construction is expected to begin this month, and the site will mark the chain’s first ground-up build of the new design prototype. The story was reported June 9 by Diana Barr.
What the prototype changes
Restaurant prototypes typically rework front-of-house flow and back-of-house operations to speed service, trim labor needs and boost off-premise sales. Common elements include self-order kiosks, digital pickup zones and a more flexible footprint, features that brands have been rolling out to improve throughput and margins, as reported by Restaurant Dive.
Why St. Louis is a logical test market…