One of the most important tasks for emerging chains is developing a prototype that will help hit growth targets.

Thumb through any restaurant-focused industry publication or scroll through any industry website and you’ll find piece after piece on new chain concepts that are planning for big growth phases and ready to find franchise partners. 

For these emerging chains, a lot more goes into such stories than putting out a press release. They’ve hired support staff, created training materials for front-line workers and, of course, developed prototype restaurants they can build again and again, dozens to even hundreds of times over.

Creating this prototype is one of the most important jobs for a new concept. A good front of the house can turn first-time guests into regular customers, while an efficient kitchen can help limit operational costs while producing high-quality food.

Cheba Hut’s cannabis-themed concept design isn’t overwhelming, but is clear through elements like the interior neon and other art pieces.

More than One

One complicating factor for these companies is that they often cannot develop only a single prototype. To take advantage of the best real estate and appeal to as many potential franchisees as possible, they need to create designs for different types of locations, such as inline, endcap, freestanding, food courts and more. 

Naturally, taking on this task presents a whole set of challenges.

Start with the customer experience. Different types of locations with different sizes and footprints obviously won’t be identical. Operators, though, should pick out the key elements of the brand’s identity, such as logo, color scheme and finishes, and apply them to all store formats. Get too far away from a unified appearance and the brand can essentially become nonexistent, warns Juan Martinez, principal and co-founder of Profitality Labor Guru, an industrial engineering consultancy specializing in multiunit foodservice brands.

This need for cohesiveness applies to the food available at different types of stores. Often, concepts reduce their menu for smaller format stores. When doing this, they should strive to keep the concept’s core offerings intact, says Chris Monico, vice president of foodservice design for C&T Design and Equipment Co., a foodservice equipment and supplies dealer and commercial kitchen designer. 

He cites a hypothetical example of a burger concept that generates 80% of its sales from that menu item but also offers a chicken sandwich at its traditional units. “If they’re developing a drive-thru-only format, the first thing I would consider is maybe you don’t need your chicken sandwich in a smaller footprint location,” Monico says.

Keeping operations consistent presents another, and probably more difficult, challenge. Different types of locations naturally will have kitchens of varying sizes to support varied service formats. An inline location probably won’t have to design for drive-thru guests, for instance, while food court restaurants typically don’t have the space to create separate assembly lines for online/third-party orders.

So how should growing chains design their kitchens when they want to build in different types of spaces?

According to Martinez, these operators should strive to keep kitchens as uniform as possible. When uniformity is not possible, chains should implement a “kit of parts” approach. Doing so often means certain sections of the kitchen remain roughly uniform, but their design allows project teams to move these spaces around to accommodate different footprints. 

This simply makes it easier to operate restaurants and to monitor their performance, Martinez says. “You’re able to train better. You’re able to manage better,” he says. “If I’m a district manager or area manager and I know my kitchens are the same, then I’m expecting them to deliver the same results. Whereas if my kitchens are different, I have to deal with that.”

It’s important to note, though, that chains can flex up or down the pieces that make up a kit of parts. This enables them to accommodate the projected demand of a location and store type. A full-service unit, for instance, could need four fryers, while a drive-thru unit may require only two or three, says Monico. Restaurants can make this sort of change while keeping the overall design concept roughly the same.

Cheba Hut, an emerging sandwich chain, appeals to franchisees with an efficient and scalable back of the house, says Shawna Snyder, vice president for national accounts at Avanti Restaurant Solutions.

More Order Streams, More Lines?

The kit of parts approach makes even more sense when considering that restaurants have more order streams than ever before, including dine-in, drive-thru, to-go, and online/third-party delivery orders. Designing for these different revenue streams is an important task for any emerging chain. One of the first questions they’ll have to ask: Do they need a second line to assemble orders?

Martinez recommends basing the decision to add a second line on the answers to two related questions: Is there enough demand that investing in a second line is worth the money? And how will the customer experience be impacted by adding a second line vs. sticking with just one?

Guests coming in to pick up online orders, Martinez notes, often have a higher tolerance for waiting compared to dine-in guests, but everyone’s orders may get delayed with a one-line setup during high-demand periods. Operators should also consider the extra labor costs of adding a second assembly line.

When investing in a second line, operators should make sure staff can easily open and close it, Martinez adds. A line that’s financially viable at peak hours may be a money loser during slower periods. Making it easy to shut down that second line can help cut operating costs.

According to Shawna Snyder, vice president for national accounts at Avanti Restaurant Solutions, a foodservice equipment dealer which offers kitchen design, some manufacturers are developing double-sided tables for order assembly lines. While these pieces may be more expensive than single-sided tables, she notes that they are less expensive and take up less room than an entirely separate assembly line.

Hash Kitchen’s interior design goes far beyond the basics to offer a true guest experience.

Custom vs. Standard

Full-service breakfast/brunch/lunch concept Hash Kitchen has a large back of the house to meet peak demand. The chain will turn off some equipment during slow periods.Questions about capacity and throughput apply to individual pieces of equipment as well, including whether to buy a stock item or a custom unit. 

The rule of thumb among kitchen designers is that off-the-shelf equipment is cheaper than custom and easier to acquire. It’s also less likely to present maintenance issues down the road and easier to work into prototype kitchen layouts, says Snyder. 

She suggests that operators who use custom equipment in their prototypes should examine whether it’s something that they like having or something they actually need. When questioned, operators will often realize that they’re using custom equipment simply because that’s what has been used before or is simply preferred — not because it’s actually needed.

That doesn’t mean off-the-shelf is best in every situation, though. Martinez argues that the expense and effort of ordering custom may pay off over the long term. Operators should crunch the numbers to find out what’s best, he argues. “You may buy an off-the-shelf piece of equipment that’s less expensive initially. Your capital may be X, and if you bought one custom piece, your capital costs may be higher. But if that custom equipment drives other metrics, whether it’s labor, throughput, service, quality or order accuracy, in the long haul, it may be better.”

Change Considerations

With any new prototype, tweaks and adjustments will likely be necessary as the new design gets used in a real-world setting. Compared to established chains, though, emerging companies typically have more changes, says C&T’s Monico.

He attributes this to sheer data, as larger companies usually have a solid understanding of their customer base, product mix and kitchen equipment needs. New chains may not yet have this information, so they’re likely to make more changes as they figure out what works and what doesn’t.

Operators can take a variety of steps to minimize these changes, however. One is testing the design in the real world before deploying it in an actual restaurant. Ideally, this can be done in a test kitchen. Emerging concepts without test kitchens should find companies that have them and work with them, Monico says. From there, operators should explore the kitchen from all angles: food cost, equipment costs, labor costs, throughput and more.

Armed with this data, operators may feel ready to make a change, but they should be cautious when doing so, Monico says, because what seems like a simple change could have unforeseen consequences.

“When an operator comes to us and has an idea, we’ll give them an honest opinion and say, ‘Are you sure you want to do that? Here’s your pitfalls if you do that. It may work, but you may have a domino effect in a bad way on something else,” Monico explains. “So there’s a lot of trial and error to some degree. Our goal is that we get all that information and we do a lot of that trial and error in design. But at some point you have to start the race. At some point you just have to do it.” 

Taco Cabana, which previously used a stovetop to make rice and beans, now uses a double-stack combi. The result is more consistent food in a smaller footprint.

Advice from an Operator

Image courtesy of Dog HausFast-casual concept Dog Haus has more than 60 locations across the United States and could could reach 70 by the end of 2025. CEO Michael Montagano spoke to FE&S on scaling a brand, second-gen spaces and the best store development advice he’s ever gotten.

On Kitchen Design

Bigger doesn’t always mean more throughput. There’s a lot of innovation on cook times and equipment size, whether it’s for fryers, flattops, fast-cooking ovens, etc., that can help operators meet demand in a smaller footprint. Don’t immediately think, “There’s more volume — I need to build something bigger.” That’s flawed logic.

Our focus after COVID was on increasing throughput in a smaller footprint. We were able to reduce our kitchen from around 700 square feet to about 500. This last year we were close to $1.9 million average unit volume, up from $1.65 million in 2024, and we’re able to do that in footprints that are far more efficient and operationally thoughtful.

On the Front of the House

Don’t forget about music programs and lighting programs. They have such a big impact on the experience and culture of the restaurant you’re creating, including employee morale and how they are evangelists for the brand’s value propositions and culture. Budget for these things but also pay attention to them afterwards. Many people invest in them, but then they’re an afterthought in how they operate moving forward.

On Tough Decisions

As we’ve done value engineering exercises and focused on where square footage sits within the kitchen, we’ve become tough critics of whether space really works for us and not gotten too pot-committed on any individual project prior to lease. 

Sometimes this means being able to walk away. We will invest money in test fits to figure out exactly how our prototype fits within a space, particularly as we analyze second-generation spaces. Just because it may be the “perfect location,” if it’s 5,100 square feet, that likely doesn’t work for us. We have to be very disciplined in an environment like this.

On the Best Development Advice You’ve Gotten

First, don’t be so married to your prototype that you miss opportunities. This is somewhat counterintuitive to what I said about being disciplined, but I think you can do both. Be disciplined but also don’t pass up on second-gen opportunities that require you to do more work and be agile with your prototype. There are some really unique opportunities out there that can come at considerable expense discounts. Have brand standards you’re proud of, but be nimble and flexible enough to make great opportunities work for your franchisees.

Second, don’t pass up on great outdoor space, because it is a real value since in many cases it doesn’t count toward rent. And if there’s an opportunity to have an outdoor space, really activate it. Many operators look at outdoor square feet and say. “We’ll take it,” but then it’s an afterthought once doors open. We really focus on our outdoor spaces, and they tend to be the most popular aspect of our stores.