What The Future of QSR Restaurants Will Look Like

Traditional fast-food restaurant formats may go the way of the dinosaur thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. Surging use of drive-thru lanes, online ordering and delivery in recent months has pressured brands across the QSR segment to get ahead of the curve by launching innovative “Restaurant of the Future” designs. 

These launches come as consumer behavior changes in response to dining room closures and social-distancing mandates. Toast data shows that 29% of consumers now place an online order a few times a month, while 25% report they do so a few times a week. 

In September, Burger King unveiled a new restaurant design in response to the crisis. The company’s “Restaurants of Tomorrow” are 60% smaller than traditional BKs and are aimed at appealing to changing consumer demand by offering multiple ordering and delivery modes. 

According to the press release, the prototype includes "a drive-in area (under solar-powered canopies) that allow guests to place their orders through the BK app and have their food delivered to the car; dedicated parking spots for curbside delivery; pickup lockers for mobile and delivery orders; multi-lane drive-thrus that provide a view into the kitchen; and an external walk-up window."

Perhaps the most striking feature of the new design is the futuristic, suspended kitchen and dining room above the drive-thru lanes. These lanes are meant to reduce the physical footprint of the restaurants and give guests the ability to drive up to the suspended kitchen and receive their food through a conveyor belt system. Another one of the new design options replaces Burger King’s traditional indoor dining room with a shaded patio featuring outdoor seating for customers who prefer to dine on premises.

During parent company Restaurant Brands International’s Q2 earnings call in early August, CEO José Cil said, “We think there is an opportunity to continue to enhance the off-premise abilities that we have, expanding drive-thrus to double drive-thrus, expanding the experience in our existing drive-thrus … We have curbside now in mobile order and prepayment and pickup with our digital offering. We felt that was the case pre-COVID … we continue to see [off-premise] as an opportunity.”

Burger King’s new design takes into account several trends that have become more relevant than ever as customers stay at home and avoid indoor dining rooms. Data from Rakuten Ready, for example, shows that order-for-pickup volume has increased by over 200% since March. 

In August, Taco Bell unveiled its new “Go Mobile” concept, which is about half of the size of a traditional Taco Bell restaurant and includes a dual drive-thru, curbside pickup and “bellhops” who facilitate orders at the drive-thru and curbside. Shake Shack plans to add some drive-thru lanes and walkup windows for the first time in 2021, and Dunkin’ has revamped its its NextGen design to feature larger on-the-go pickup areas, a walk-up window and several drive-thru enhancements.

With these new restaurant designs, franchisors are betting on a permanent change in consumer behavior. This is probably a smart move — over 85% of order ahead for pickup customers plan to continue using the service post-COVID-19, according to Rakuten Ready. 

Still, while these habits are becoming more popular post-COVID, they are not necessarily revolutionary in the food service segment. “The changes in restaurant design that are currently happening because of COVID-19 are not unprecedented, they were already coming,” said Buffalo Wings and Rings* CEO Nader Masadeh. The brand began planning a revamped restaurant design a few years ago with a focus on off-premise offerings, outdoor seating and digital ordering. Now, the restaurant revamp is perfectly positioned for a post-COVID world.

“COVID-19 really just expedited where the industry was headed,” said Masadeh. “For example, the demand for variety within an indoor/outdoor restaurant space has always been there, and the shift to off-premise and delivery services was already well underway. In addition, the need for technological integration has been a primary focus over the past few years. Now, it just so happens that all of these changes have been accelerated to combat COVID-19.”