Burger King's Restaurant Of Tomorrow

[Alpha8472]

Burger King is revealing two designs for its Restaurant of Tomorrow. The restaurant of the future is designed for the new Age of Coronavirus.

The restaurant is 2 levels with the suspended kitchen on the second floor and drive thru on the ground level along with walk up windows for take out. The food is delivered to the lower drive thru level via conveyor belts. There are 2 drive thru lanes and outdoor shaded seating to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Customers will be encouraged to eat outdoors. No more inviting virus stricken customers inside. The second floor also has upper level outdoor seating. This looks like it would be a nice place to get some sun.

There are also outdoor pickup lockers for food delivery workers. Delivery workers must not enter the restaurant for fear of them bringing in the plague. There is a staircase to the second level. Where is the ADA required elevator?

There are up to 3 drive thru lanes looping around the building. It looks like it will be very confusing.

There is a second design with parking spaces covered with solar panels for park and order customers. There are computer screens where you scan a QR code and then employees will bring the food to your car. This will keep potentially infected people from needlessly coming inside the restaurant and spreading the virus. Everyone will stay in their cars and never have to go inside the restaurant. Now the employees will run out to customers' cars. With so many parking spaces, the restaurant will need to have a team of carhops on roller skates to keep up.

I like the glass design. It really lets in the natural sunlight. Perhaps they could have some open windows as well. They should have some fresh air for the employees stuck on the second level too.

This is debuting in Miami in 2021.

https://www.nrn.com/quick-service/close ... ow-designs

[TW-Upstate NY]

With so many parking spaces, the restaurant will need to have a team of carhops on roller skates to keep up.

Seems VERY labor intensive which again equals cost. Somebody is going to have to pay those costs and maybe consumers will up to a point BUT when do they say enough is enough?

[jamcool]

Maybe they need to go back to their original 50s-60s designs, with a few modern twists. That BK design will turn into a hothouse in warmer climates

[pseudo3d]

Looks like a combo of Checkers/Rally's double drive through lanes and a Sonic, but needlessly complicated with tons of extra features added on.

Designing a restaurant for the "age of coronavirus" is going to be a white elephant when this whole thing blows over in a year or two.

[cjd]

Looks like a combo of Checkers/Rally's double drive through lanes and a Sonic, but needlessly complicated with tons of extra features added on.

Designing a restaurant for the "age of coronavirus" is going to be a white elephant when this whole thing blows over in a year or two.

I agree, spending all of this money to design what amounts to a momentary thing is ridiculous. Unless they decide they're going to start rebuilding their restaurants every few years.

If they're thinking they're going to build this thing in Miami, they will lose all of their "dine in" customers. It's way too hot here in FL to even consider only offering outdoor dining. Checkers was able to get away with it, I think because most of their traffic is drive thru anyway.

If they thought this way during the 2009- recession, they would have just shut down all of their restaurants!

[jamcool]

The truth is the restaurant biz was changing even before the virus. The beginning of “ghost kitchens” , consolidation of owners, fewer and smaller locations and on-line ordering/delivery started well before the sickness and it just forced their hands

[storewanderer]

A two floor fast food restaurant prep area. What happens when the equipment breaks that takes food between the 2nd floor kitchen and the first floor delivery area?

Employees running up and down stairs between the two areas... having to take all the food deliveries from the supply truck up the stairs.

In an environment that is fast paced with an emphasis on speed and often understaffed.

What could possibly go wrong?

I doubt we will see more than one of these built. And employee injury claims will doom it in short order.

[pseudo3d]

A two floor fast food restaurant prep area. What happens when the equipment breaks that takes food between the 2nd floor kitchen and the first floor delivery area?

Employees running up and down stairs between the two areas... having to take all the food deliveries from the supply truck up the stairs.

In an environment that is fast paced with an emphasis on speed and often understaffed.

What could possibly go wrong?

I doubt we will see more than one of these built. And employee injury claims will doom it in short order.

If I recall, the dry supplies for old A-frame Wienerschnitzel restaurants were kept in an attic above the restaurant and disconnected from the main kitchen area entirely. There's a reason why they don't build restaurants like that anymore...

[cjd]

I remember reading about some McDonald's that had a basement storage area and a conveyor belt brought the food up to the kitchen area.

The older Dairy Queen (70s built) in my town has an upstairs area with windows visible from the outside. Always wondered what that level is/was used for. Haven't noticed any stairs anywhere back in the kitchen.

This BK looks to me to be very costly to build, much fancier and engineering intensive than the typical one level build. I wouldn't expect more than a few of these locations to be built either. Their intended locations of Miami FL and central America don't have the climate for them anyway.

It looks like an order nightmare with all of the drive thrus, pick ups and delivery taking place at the same time. The orders will surely get mixed up, not to mention the traffic nightmares that will likely happen because of confusion in the parking lot.

[Knight]

Multiple drive thru lanes are challenges McDonald's, Chick-fil-A, and Burger King are trying to solve.

McDonald's started the trend of two or more drive thru lanes by adding an incomplete second drive thru only with the order kiosk. Existing locations have added third windows to the first drive thru lane for decorative and non-practical purposes

Chick-fil-A went the same direction as McDonald's with an incomplete second drive thru lane, order kiosk only. Some locations have advanced forward with completing the second drive thru lane with a window. Other locations have regressed by eliminating drive thru windows together.

While Burger King's concepts are interesting, only practical ideas will move forward. Most customers will dine in or utilize drive thru. For drive thru, there should be an optimal number of drive thru lanes that involve order kiosks and appropriate windows for payment and pickup.