Key Takeaways
- KFC just opened a futuristic restaurant in McKinney, Texas, the first of its kind.
- Open House offers KFC’s first breakfast menu, table service, boba tea, cronuts, plus new sauces and location-exclusive items like the Twister and Southwest Corn.
- Executives call it a testing ground, not a finished blueprint.
If you’re wondering what KFC will look like in the next 10 years, head on over to McKinney, Texas, where the chicken chain just opened a modern prototype restaurant, complete with a slick new design, never-before-seen menu items, merch, and a dual-lane drive-thru.
“To me, this is the comeback plan that we have started all made real in one restaurant,” said Catherine Tan-Gillespie, President of KFC U.S. The gleaming, 3,400-square-foot location off of Eldorado Road reworks all four Ps (product, place, price and promotion) at once.
There’s a lot of firsts going on here. It’s KFC’s first restaurant to serve breakfast, its first with true table service, its first to serve boba tea and cronuts and Krunch shakes, its first with a dedicated Celebration Booth, complete with customizable, digitally enhanced photos that surround you like a mini Times Square.
Not all these additions will make it past this one North Dallas location. “This particular restaurant is showcasing the art of the possible, but it’s not a blueprint. This is the testing ground for us to try those things and see what works best,” said Tan-Gillespie.
Photo credit: KFC
More choices, less confusion
One of those tests is simplifying the menu. Every combo at Open House now comes standard with fries, a biscuit, a dip and a drink, no more guessing what’s included from item to item. The goal is to make it easier for customers to understand what they’re getting, and easier for employees to execute without memorizing dozens of variations.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t more choices. This location features the Twister and Premium Sandwich, Southwest Corn, Fried Green Beans, Rainbow Coleslaw and Spicy Pickles, a reworked mashed potato recipe, and colorful drinks like lemonades, mango and cherry boba refreshers, and Krunch shakes. There’s also a swag bar selling exclusive KFC merch, including a pair of fried chicken-print socks.
Photo credit: KFC
More ways in
The drive-thru got a rework too. Open House runs dual drive-thru lanes alongside a separate walk-up window and a dedicated mobile pickup lane, a combination executives admitted isn’t something you’d want at every location. “This is a way for us to figure out what works best by location,” one executive said.
Photo credit: KFC
A kitchen designed to save time and money
Behind the counter, the changes go deeper than the menu. A new oven doubles as a rethermalizer, cutting the equipment franchisees need to buy in half. A sauce-dispensing machine, built by a California startup, drops three sauces into a container and seals it automatically, no more assembly-line squeeze bottles. Every register, kiosk and kitchen screen runs on Byte, the same point-of-sale platform CEO Chris Turner has pushed across Yum! Brands.
Winning back fans
The bigger goal is emotional as much as operational. “KFC lives in people’s memories, and not so much in the moments of today,” Tan-Gillespie said. “The brand is loved, but it’s latent.” With its skylights, succulent gardens, and red fins reminiscent of tail feathers, this new structure will hopefully beckon customers to stop by, eat, chat, and stay a while, like they did when the Colonel was behind the counter.
Photo credit: KFC