Chick-fil-A Opens its First Elevated Drive-Thru Restaurant
Chick-fil-A recently opened its first elevated drive-thru restaurant in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Metro Atlanta. The drive-thru only location features four lanes and an elevated kitchen with a sophisticated meal transport system.
Designed to expediate drive-thru service, the new two-story restaurant streamlines food delivery from a conveyer belt by quickly moving the meal from the elevated kitchen above to employees on the ground below. The kitchen is twice as large as a typical Chick-fil-A restaurant kitchen and the food conveyor system allows for a meal to be delivered to a staff member every six seconds. Similar to other existing Chick-fil-A drive-thru only locations, there is no dining room or dine-in services at this restaurant.
“Our guests lead busy lives, and we’re focused on designing our restaurants to best serve their needs,” said Jonathan Reed, executive director of design for Chick-fil-A, Inc. “With the new Elevated Drive-Thru design, featuring our first four lane drive-thru, we're aiming to deliver quality food and genuine hospitality in a way that’s uniquely Chick-fil-A, and gives our guests time back in their day.”
The four-lane drive-thru can support two to three times more vehicles than a standard Chick-fil-A restaurant drive-thru. Guests can either order their meals in advance through the Chick-fil-A app and pick up using the dedicated mobile thru lanes or they can place their order with a staff member in the traditional drive-thru lanes.
Chick-fil-A selected Brett Lewis to be the local owner-operator of the new restaurant in McDonough. Lewis had been the owner-operator of a Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Dalton, Georgia since 2019 before deciding to relocate back to his hometown in McDonough. According to a press release announcing the new drive-thru concept, Chick-fil-A said the franchise model is essential to how the restaurant serves others. Most Chick-fil-A restaurants are owned and operated by a single individual, which means local Chick-fil-A owner-operators are small business owners, not passive investors, who work in their restaurants side by side with their team members each day.
This is the second new restaurant concept Chick-fil-A has launched this year. In March, it debuted its new mobile pickup location in New York City that features 3,500 square feet with an interior space, but no dining room. It includes a standard kitchen and staging area where guests can pick up their meals after placing orders online or through the Chick-fil-A app. Customers can also request their food to be delivered by third-party services. The chain has said both are meant to cater to the fast-food chain’s “on-the-go guest” amid a rise in popularity for digital methods of ordering.
Chick-fil-A is the third largest quick-service restaurant company in the United States, with more than 200,000 employees employed by independent owner-operators in more than 3,000 restaurants across the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company plans to expand into Europe and Asia by 2030.
The full article about Chick-Fil-A's first elevated drive-thru restaurant can be found here.
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