How often have we heard the term “the new normal” over the past three years?

The rise of off-premises dining has been an ongoing trend in the restaurant industry — takeout has been growing as a proportion of U.S. consumers’ foodservice spending for decades. But carryout and delivery took off like a rocket in 2020 — spurred by the coronavirus pandemic, of course, but also aided by new technologies (for example, app-based ordering and smart kitchen-linked POS), alternative formats (ghost-kitchen fulfillment and third-party delivery services) and more diverse restaurant offerings (packaged retail items and to-go alcohol).

So, what’s considered normal today? And what will be normal in a couple of years?

A rendering shows Chick-fil-A’s new drive-thru format with two lanes going through the middle of the building as well as two parallel lanes on the sides. (One of the four is reserved for individuals picking up preorders.) The new-format, high-production kitchen is upstairs, and food is lowered to pickup windows via a sophisticated lift system. Rendering courtesy of Chick-fil-A

Consumer Demand for Takeout Accelerates

Despite consumers’ enthusiastic return to dine-in meal occasions away from home, the share of limited-service restaurant sales represented by takeout and delivery continues to rise, while in full-service eateries, takeout and delivery are stabilizing at a new, higher level compared to pre-pandemic times.

Two-thirds of consumers polled for the National Restaurant Association’s 2023 “State of the Restaurant Industry” report said they were more likely to order takeout and delivery from restaurants now than they were before COVID-19. In a poll of restaurant operators in the same study, the majority of respondents — in every segment from fast-food to fine dining — said their takeout and delivery sales were higher now than they were pre-COVID. And while limited-service restaurant operators were more likely to foresee further increases in the proportion of sales derived from takeout and delivery, 8 out of 10 fine-dining operators who offer takeout said they intend to keep doing so, indicating that they continue to find that part of their business profitable.

Restaurants are willing to invest to maintain and increase these gains in takeout and delivery business. More than 4 out of 10 operators surveyed for the NRA’s annual report told pollsters they were planning investments in equipment and/or technology to increase their staff’s productivity both in the front and back of the house, with meal ordering and payment systems the most likely target of upgrades.

“In fast-food, the key is innovation in drive-thru and mobile ordering,” says Cori Kuechenmeister, director of design at Shea Inc. “We’re seeing a lot of things being tested to maximize efficiency. Some fast-food restaurants are creating dual drive-thru lanes, with one lane for guests who need to place an order first, and one for guests who’ve already placed theirs online and just need to pick it up.”

Wendy’s is already debuting a new iteration of its Global Next Gen prototype, which was introduced in 2022. The new version includes a dual-sided kitchen design with an updated layout.

The Drive-Thru Revolution

Wendy’s is debuting the next version of its next-generation restaurant protype, called Global Next Gen, which was originally introduced in 2022. This new version includes a dual-sided kitchen design with an updated layout and state-of-the-art equipment, enabling production capacity 50% higher than the original Global Next Gen prototype kitchen. Upgrades include additional sandwich production areas, more space devoted to prep, and dedicated space for digital order fulfillment. Wendy’s new design meets those needs via mobile order parking spots, in-restaurant pickup shelving, self-order kiosks and a new dedicated delivery pickup window, all of which enable customers and delivery drivers to grab meals more quickly and conveniently.

Chick-fil-A is testing two new carryout-focused restaurant prototypes: a two-story drive-thru in Atlanta, and a walk-up unit in New York City; the chain plans to open both in 2024. “Digital orders make up more than half of total sales in some markets — and growing — so we know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” says Khalilah Cooper, the chain’s executive director of restaurant design. “We want to leverage technology to elevate the human touchpoints in our restaurants. These new digital formats make the customer and team member experience more seamless.”

Image courtesy of Chick-fil-A Like Taco Bell’s Defy prototype unveiled last year, Chick-fil-A’s two-story drive-thru will feature four car lanes — two of them routed through the center of the building. It is designed to accommodate up to 75 vehicles at a time. Drivers who have preordered are routed to a Mobile Thru lane; others order via intercom from a staff member overhead. The store will lower food via a transport system from the second-story kitchen. And the kitchen design can accommodate twice the production capacity of a typical Chick-fil-A. The two-story design will allow the unit to operate at accelerated throughput within a standard-size Chick-fil-A footprint.

The new walk-up Chick-fil-A in New York, like an urban prototype developed earlier by Starbucks, will fulfill app-based preorders exclusively. Orders will be ready when patrons arrive and will be handed to them quickly; the compact unit will feature no counter or soda machines.

Artificial-intelligence (AI) voice ordering is penetrating rapidly in drive-thru lanes, not only in globally dominant companies like McDonald’s, but also at chains like 102-year-old White Castle. “The technology has made a quantum leap forward, and that gives us the ability to provide a great customer experience,” says Jamie Richardson, the chain’s vice president of marketing and public relations. “We’ve gotten to a much better place, faster, than we ever thought we’d be able to.”

White Castle began testing AI voice ordering with its technology partner in 2021. The chain announced in August a commitment to roll out the ordering system to 100 units, or almost 30% of its system, by the end of 2024.

Unlike other AI ordering systems, the default AI voice is not backed up by a human component of the interaction. But in case there’s an impasse, there’s also an instruction on the order screen telling the patron how to ask for a staff member in the unit to get on a microphone and intervene. Richardson says that currently, 90% of orders through the AI system go off without a glitch and don’t require human assistance. Of course, some patrons request a person on the line simply because they prefer to interact with a human. According to Richardson, the chain has not identified any generational, geographic or other pattern to predict which customers are happy with AI ordering and which prefer the human touch.

In some units, White Castle supplements its AI voice-activated, drive-thru experience with more human involvement. New Dutch doors leading from the kitchen to the drive-thru allow crew to open the top half to create an additional staffed window, as well as for the full door to be opened to enable a staffer to intercept drivers in the drive-thru — either to record a patron’s order on a handheld tablet, or to deliver food to a waiting car.

How It’s Done: Simpler Menu, Smarter Operations

As drive-thru, mobile, kiosk and front-counter ordering become more automated and speedier, the pace of takeout business is accelerating so rapidly that fulfillment has become a problem of its own.

At White Castle drive-thrus with the new voice assistant, text comes up visually on the ordering screen at the same time as AI voice prompts. Another text prompts those who want to order via a human how to word their request so they’ll be transferred immediately. Photos courtesy of White Castle“The pressure on kitchens is crazy,” says foodservice design consultant Arlene Spiegel of Arlene Spiegel & Associates. Yet kitchens are generally shrinking as a percentage of a restaurant unit’s footprint to give more space to profit-generating indoor and outdoor tables, takeout queues and drive-thru lanes, she says. “Kitchens have to do more with less space and less hands-on training of staff.”

Mark Rossi, founder and CEO of Avanti Restaurant Solutions, also sees problems with small kitchens trying to do more orders faster. “Production is getting bogged down,” he says. “Some menu items can throw everyone off — for instance, that one quesadilla that requires a press. So, to have more throughput, you’ll have to cut down the number of menu items and simplify.”

Cooking everything to order isn’t realistic when kitchens produce large quantities of food quickly for takeout, drive-thru and dine-in service, both Rossi and Spiegel agree.

“If you’re doing a grilled sandwich, you have to have it ready-made, not assembling it when the order comes in,” Rossi says. “Fried chicken is another example — at some point, production will run behind. You have to be able to hold at least a little bit, but in such a way that it stays crunchy and juicy,” he explains. Pre-preparing food “requires cook-and-hold ovens, hot holding with the right adjustments of temperature, humidity and time. You’ve got to find the combination that keeps the food delicious.”

For kitchens that cook items from a frozen state, thawing cabinets are “a huge deal,” Rossi notes. “You can take your proteins from the walk-in or freezer, bring them back up to temperature safely, and from there they go to the grill or oven or fryer,” he explains. “That helps speed cook times.”

Cooking equipment in today’s high-production, takeout-forward LSR kitchens has to be programmable and able to multitask, Spiegel says: “Even small countertop ovens now have different temperature controls for different products.” Low-tech changes are necessary, too: “Food has to be preprepared and put on rolling racks ready to go. The hotel pans being used are deeper for greater capacity — what used to be 6 inches deep is now 10 inches,” she adds. Pre-preparation also may mean more cold storage of prepared foods as well as raw ingredients and labor-saving convenience items like prewashed, precut lettuce — so today’s high-volume kitchens require larger walk-ins, Spiegel points out.

But it’s not just equipment that needs to be rethought; it’s the production system itself. “When they get orders coming in from third-party platforms, as well as those directly from the restaurant, cooks don’t know what to do first,” Spiegel says. “It’s been a painful wake-up call, and it requires rerouting and redesigning the way the kitchen receives orders.” The answer, she says, is not more technology, but another human in the kitchen — an expeditor to supervise production, see that orders are fulfilled accurately and promptly, and that they are sent to the right place, whether it’s the drive-thru, the front counter or the pickup-and-delivery-driver shelves.

FOH Reorg

The front-counter area also needs to be rethought for the era of quicker throughput and heavier takeout and delivery business. “In fast-casual and fast-food restaurants, we are creating temperature-controlled spaces and reconfiguring for pickup,” Kuechenmeister reports. “It can be challenging in an existing space, but it’s important for guests to know where to go and to move through quickly.”

In full-service restaurants, “it’s still important to consider where and how food will be picked up,” Kuechenmeister adds. “You don’t want a front entrance cluttered with takeout bags to be the first impression for guests, so building a place for pickup thoughtfully into the design is important.”

The front of the house requires adequate space to keep it from feeling cramped and chaotic, Spiegel notes. “You may have to take room away from the dining area up by the entrance to create careful queue lines, and make sure you’re not holding up the line by having staff give customers things they can be getting for themselves,” she explains. “Customers can go through the line, pay, then get utensils, napkins, condiments and a shopping bag.” Self-service coffee urns, beverage stations and ice stations, which disappeared from many restaurants during the COVID-19 era, have also returned as minimization of front-of-the-house labor has become more important to operators.

For the food pickup area adjacent to the POS stations, most restaurants make do with wire shelves rather than expensive lockers, Spiegel says. But, she adds, the shelves must be given adequate space, and there should be a separate, clearly marked area for pickup by drivers from delivery services.

The goal, as stated by Kuechenmeister, is to create “areas for pickup that are clear and easy for the consumer — without disrupting the restaurant’s dining experience — and to provide a functional space for extra equipment like warming stations, grab-and-go coolers, etc.” In addition, she reminds operators that it’s important to ensure that there are designated short-term parking spaces for guests picking up food.