KFC unveils Open House prototype as centerpiece of comeback plan
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KFC’s Open House prototype will serve as a sort of learning lab as the chain forges a comebackPhoto courtesy of KFC
KFC’s “comeback plan,” put into place last summer shortly after Catherine Tan-Gillespie was named president of the U.S. system, may be ready to go into overdrive.
The plan has so far included refreshed marketing, new value offerings, and the return of some favorites like potato wedges and popcorn chicken. But now it will also include a bevy of learnings pulled from a new restaurant prototype — called Open House — making its debut this week in McKinney, Texas, just outside of Dallas.
Open House isn’t your grandparents’ legacy KFC. The restaurant is inspired by mid-century modern design with oversized windows, flexible indoor, outdoor, and breezeway seating, a “celebration booth” for special occasions (or just a more exciting meal), digital screens highlighting signature menu items, and plenty of music permeating throughout the space.
That said, there are also several elements paying homage to the brand started by Colonel Harland Sanders in 1952 and the restaurant, though colorfully modern, is unmistakably KFC, with iconic branding throughout.
Why it was created
We had the opportunity to see the 3,400-square-foot restaurant in person just a few days prior to its grand opening and it’s clear the company is leveraging the concept as a bit of a learning lab, offering table service, dual drive-thru lanes, a dedicated mobile ordering lane and delivery pickup area, self-order kiosks, digital menu boards, and more. The comeback plan is supported by “the four Ps” — product, promotion, place and price — and Open House brings the “place” component front-and-center.
Tan-Gillespie said the company conceptualized the idea about 18 months ago after concluding that the brand is “loved but latent” and needed some energy.
“We know that the brand is more in memories than in moments of today, so the job is how do we drive consideration? We know that restaurant design is a huge part of considering a brand,” she said.
This initial location is supported by corporate funds, though franchisees have started to show interest and one franchisee — Stewart Restaurant Group in Minneapolis — has committed to opening a prototype as well.
“For franchisees that are well capitalized, they’re excited about having an investable proposition. For everybody else, they’re curious and asking what they’re going to learn that they can scale. It has to work for the customers, team members, and commercially, so if this entire restaurant does all three of those things, which we expect it will do, I think our well capitalized partners will be excited,” Tan-Gillespie said. “For other franchisees, there will be parts of this that we take and scale.”
Where the learnings will come from
Among the insights KFC is looking to “take and scale” is what Tan-Gillespie calls “AUV-maxxing” — how does the restaurant get the most out of the prototype to bolster four-wall economics. Open House will include expanded dayparts, including breakfast, for example, as well as an occasion-driven menu with beverages (called KFC Sips) and snacks (the company has brought its ‘Go Bucket’ to the U.S. for the first time, which is essentially a small bucket for snack-sized offerings). There are also more channels, including catering, and a “swag bar” with apparel and souvenirs. The company is also looking to “get more juice out of local marketing.”
“The idea is how do we max out AUVs versus going in with a cost-cutting mentality,” Tan-Gillespie said.
Whenever a component shows signs of such AUV-maxxing, the company will then likely stage-gate a broader rollout.
“The franchise model is typically a bit of a copy and paste before you launch something at scale. This restaurant is showcasing the art of the possible, but it’s not a blueprint yet,” said Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer Sarah Crow. “We want to learn from this location, to test and see what works best. We’re not yet at the point of saying, ‘we’ve cracked it, let’s copy and paste.’ But it is going to be a paced and sequence rollout.”
Testing new dayparts and formats
On the menu, KFC is offering a breakfast menu for the first time, with items like Original Recipe tenders, Hashbrown Sticks, Mini Cronuts, coffee, and iced lattes. Though the menu includes more dayparts, snacks, and beverages, it is smaller than a traditional KFC.
The goal, said Ana Maria Basurto Garcia, KFC’s director of Food innovation & Technology, is to provide variety and customization without complexity. Much of that customization comes from a bevy of new sauces such as jalapeño ranch and garlic parmesan. Open House takes a mix-and-match sauce approach to signatures like the Twister, Snacker, and Sandwich, while customers can also order their fried chicken, wings, tenders, and fries drizzled.
There is also a dedicated beverage station to support the new Sips line, which includes lemonades, boba refreshers, and Krunch shakes. Meanwhile, sides, such as mashed potatoes and gravy and spicy pickles, have been “elevated,” according to Garcia, to convey a “fast casual experience without the fast casual price tag.” Signature bone-in chicken and wings are also available.
“We have one ready recipe for all of our Original Recipe chicken, where in our traditional restaurants, we have two recipes, and that adds complexity,” she said. “Variety without complexity is what we’re trying to achieve here. Back-of-house, this is much simpler to execute.”
Digital-forward with a balance of hospitality
Zooming out from the menu, Tan-Gillespie said the restaurant is “very digital forward, but with an obvious balance of hospitality.” There is an additional position in the lobby host, for example, who is tasked with greeting guests, bringing food to their tables, and guiding kiosk or delivery guests. There will also be employees in the drive-thru queues taking orders via handheld tables. Aaron Hedi, market manager of KFC U.S., said these labor deployments come as customers want to feel like their experience is worth it and “part of that is having the human hospitality element.”
Technology integrations have been made through the back-of-house which has enabled the restaurant to “redeploy labor where it matters.”
“Digital is there, like with our kiosks, to complement your experience if you want it and then we’re elevating the human touchpoint,” Hedi said.
There’s also the “celebration booth,” which Tan-Gillespie calls a “beautiful mixture of comfort and celebration.” Guests can customize the booth with a digitally enhanced, immersive photo for whatever they’re celebrating.
“What we’re trying to do with this restaurant is give customers all the options they want to consume fried chicken. We have opened up every single channel but also putting as much weight on the dining experience because we feel like customers want that back,” Tan-Gillespie said. “We want to have digital. We want to have AI. We want to be super efficient. But also, customers want to experience the brand and feel like they’re coming into someone’s home when they come into the KFC.”
What success looks like
It’s early days with this concept and there is a long way to go before KFC realizes any type of scalability from this prototype, but it’s clear the team is optimistic about its potential.
“This restaurant represents the art of the possible for our comeback plan,” Tan-Gillespie said. “Success for us is America seeing KFC differently, talking about KFC differently, and we want to learn how to build KFCs differently as well. What we test in this restaurant we would want to scale everything that works across America.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
Follow her on TikTok: @aliciakelso
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