Chick-fil-A announced plans this week for two new restaurant design concepts aimed at its digital-first customers.
The new restaurant designs — an elevated kitchen above a four-lane drive-thru and a walk-up restaurant — will be tested in Atlanta and New York City, according to the company. The new restaurants will rely on digital ordering, company officials said.
“These types of digital-first formats allow us to uniquely care for a customer in the way that they want to experience us as a brand,” Ash Pait, a strategy and development executive, said in a corporate YouTube video.
The elevated drive-thru concept restaurant will be built in metro Atlanta, and the walk-up restaurant in New York City. Both are expected to be up and running by next year.
According to an artist rendering, the elevated building in Atlanta will feature four drive-thru lanes that flow below the restaurant’s kitchen.
The store set for New York City will allow customers to order and pay for their food digitally and then walk up to the restaurant to pick up the order. The store would have no cashiers.
“Digital orders make up more than half of total sales in some markets… so we know our customers have an appetite for convenience,” said Khalilah Cooper, Chick-fil-A’s executive director of restaurant design.
“The locations for these tests were intentionally selected with the customers in mind, giving them more control over their desired experience and cutting down wait time.”
The exact locations of the two new restaurants were not announced.
Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A has more than 2,700 restaurants in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Canada.
It employs more than 170,000 team members.