Chick-fil-A has opened its first elevated drive-thru only restaurant in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta. The restaurant features an innovative design with an elevated kitchen and a sophisticated conveyor belt system that can deliver a meal from the team above to the team below every six seconds.
The elevated kitchen is double the size of a standard Chick-fil-A restaurant kitchen, allowing for faster service. The restaurant has four drive-thru lanes, with two dedicated to traditional drive-thru customers and two for mobile order-ahead customers, including delivery drivers.
The concept was strategically designed to increase speed-of-service and simplify the drive-thru experience for guests.
Chick-fil-A says the four-lane drive-thru has the capacity to support two to three times more vehicles than a standard Chick-fil-A restaurant drive-thru.
“Our Guests lead busy lives, and we’re focused on designing our restaurants to best serve their needs,” said Jonathan Reed, Executive Director of Design for Chick-fil-A, Inc. “With the new Elevated Drive-Thru design, featuring our first four lane drive-thru, we’re aiming to deliver quality food and genuine hospitality in a way that’s uniquely Chick-fil-A, and gives our Guests time back in their day.”
The restaurant is the second of two innovative test concepts opened by Chick-fil-A this year, with both focused on serving the “on-the-go” customer. In March, the company opened a mobile pickup-only format in New York City.