Quadruple lanes? Restaurants want that line moving
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, with restaurant dining rooms closed, chains counted on drive-thru and takeout business to survive. Now they’re doubling down — testing drive-thrus with double, triple or even quadruple lanes.
Wisconsin-based burger and custard chain Culver’s newest Chicago-area restaurant opened last week with a two-lane drive-thru that franchise owner Baron Waller hopes will get diners in and out faster than at his other restaurants, including one in the Bronzeville neighborhood that’s “always busy, and always has a line.”
“It gives us the opportunity to take more orders simultaneously,” he said.
Culver’s started introducing two-lane drive-thrus last year, though decisions on whether individual restaurants build them are up to franchise owners like Waller. It’s part of Culver’s broader focus on keeping up with a pandemic boom in to-go dining that continues to outpace growth in dine-in sales, said CEO Rick Silva.
“You can give more love and hospitality in the dining room, but
. you have more growth happening off-premise than on, and we need to make sure we can continue to grow that capacity,” he said.
In addition to the two-lane drive-thrus, Culver’s is experimenting with giving employees tablets at certain restaurant locations so they can take orders at customers’ cars, rather than having them wait to order one at a time at the speaker in a traditional drivethru lane.
Culver’s doesn’t deliver but is
updating its technology so it will have the ability to handle delivery orders, Silva said.
At fast-food restaurants, the share of orders placed in the restaurant has recovered from pandemic lows, according to Technomic, a Chicago-based food service research and consulting firm.
But ordering in the restaurant is still less common than before the pandemic, while drive-thru and pickup and delivery both remain more popular than they used to be. Drive-thrus bring in roughly half of orders.
Even before the pandemic, convenient, on-the-go dining options were gaining popularity, and the pandemic accelerated that trend, pushing restaurants to rethink the traditional drive-thru, said David Henkes, senior principal at Technomic.
“How can we make it even more seamless, smoother and more efficient?” he said.
Culver’s isn’t the only restaurant asking that question.
Burger chain Shake Shack is opening its first restaurant with a drive-thru this year and planning up to 10 by the end of 2022, starting with locations in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Orlando and Detroit, CEO Randall Garutti said during a call discussing the company’s third-quarter earnings earlier this month.
Shake Shack is also adding locations with drive-up windows where customers can pick up advance orders. About a quarter of restaurants opening next year will have one.
Taco Bell, meanwhile, announced a new “Go Mobile” restaurant concept last year with two drive-thru lanes, one for customers who preordered through its app. The restaurants will also have “bellhops” who take drivers’ orders on tablets, and curbside pickup, in restaurants a little more than half the size of an average Taco Bell.
The company was already planning Go Mobile before the pandemic, but accelerated those plans last year, President and Global Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said in a statement, describing the restaurant as “meeting our customers where they are.”
There are 23 “Go Mobile” locations today, and 85 more planned. In August, Taco Bell announced an even newer concept: a two-story restaurant with no dining room, a second-story kitchen and four drive-thru lanes, three for customers who ordered ahead and delivery drivers. It’s expected to open in Minnesota next summer.
Last fall, Mcdonald’s said it’s also testing new options for takeout customers, including a smaller restaurant focused on pickup, delivery and drive-thru with limited or no dine-in seating, an express drive-thru lane for customers who ordered ahead through the app and technology that lets employees know to begin preparing an advance order when the customer is on the way.