Burger King Redesigns Suggest COVID-19 Jump-Started A Better Future
Today's transitional reality is tomorrows actual reality, according to Burger King's in-house design department and architects. Today's announcement from the fast food brand was that they're unveiling new restaurant designs for an "Enhanced Guest Experience in COVID World." Their innovations include mobile orders, curbside pick-up, and touchless features aplenty.
The designs shown this afternoon were created for Burger King with Restaurant Brands International in-house design group – so that's for Burger King by Burger King. In the designs, Burger King claims a physical footprint that's 60% smaller than traditional restaurant building and sites. This is a future that's more sustainable than what's been made in the past.
Above and below you'll get an idea of what it'll be like to visit a Burger King in the future. The restaurants are built with the drive-through as a primary way to interact with consumers. There'll be a dedicated place for walk-up orders. There'll be a dedicated place for mobile orders.
This is the sort of restaurant that many brands have been edging toward in the past several months. Orders aren't necessarily consumed in the same place they're made. People don't expect a sit-down experience as a default.
This set of designs shown by Burger King today does include on-premise dining with "shaded patio" seating. Above you'll see two different iterations of Burger King's future restaurant design – one of the two includes both a suspended kitchen and a suspended dining room.
The primary keys to the fast food kingdom of the future, according to Burger King's designs, are as follows:
• Drive-in
• Curbside Delivery
• Pick Up Lockers
• On-Premise Dining (outdoor)
• Drive-Thru
• Suspended Kitchen and Dining Room (allowing drive-thru on ground level, re: smaller footprint overall)
Burger King showed the designs today as a preview of what's ACTUALLY going to come to the real world. This isn't just a set of concept designs.
The first new restaurant with designs such as these will be build inside the year 2021. They'll appear in Miami, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Cross your fingers other restaurants jump onboard with the future in the NEAR future, too.