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KFC has been taking a licking from fried chicken rivals like Raising Cane’s, but the global fast-food chain has a plan to return to the top of the U.S. pecking order.
The Kentucky-born brand opened a new restaurant in McKinney, Texas, to serve as a test lab in its home market. Called Open House, it serves breakfast—a U.S. first for KFC—and stays open late. The menu will feature new drinks like boba-filled refreshers and crunchy-topped milkshakes, an expanded lineup of tenders and sauces, and new side dishes like fried green beans and spicy pickles.
The restaurant has double drive-thru lanes and a mobile order pickup station. But KFC designed it to encourage customers to stay a while. After ordering at a digital kiosk, they can sit and wait for employees to bring the food to their table. There is also a photo booth and a counter selling branded merch.
KFC did not say how much of Open House’s design or menu will eventually reach the rest of its 3,424 U.S. restaurants. The new beverages are likely to spread more widely; the company already introduced a similar drink menu in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Turkey, and other markets.
The Texas concept and gleaming, multi-story flagships set to open in Dubai, Seoul, and London show KFC is trying to make grabbing fast food more of an experience.
“People don’t remember what they eat, but they remember how they were feeling when they were eating,” KFC Chief Concept Officer Christophe Poirier, who leads new restaurant design, said.
Poirier said KFC is automating tasks like ordering so employees can focus on hospitality. Ideally, KFC will function more like an Apple Store or a luxury retailer, he said, without the stressful lines or grumpy cashiers that plague the fast-food industry.
“You leave the retailer and say, ‘Wow. The product is amazing, but beyond that, the service was amazing. For 10 or 15 minutes I was feeling like a king,'” he said.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.