Dive Brief:
- White Castle has opened its first new store prototype, dubbed the “Castle of Tomorrow,” in Columbus, Ohio, the chain said in an emailed press release.
- The redesigned store format is meant to increase efficiency and improve the customer experience.
- A modernized restaurant design could help the Midwestern chain expand more quickly in new states, like Texas, Florida and Arizona, where it has been working to establish footholds in recent years.
Dive Insight:
The shift toward a greater emphasis on on-premise experience in restaurant design has tracked fairly closely with consumer price sensitivity. Data from Technomic has shown a shift toward on-premise dining during the same time, as consumers look for a holistic version of value that includes experience and ambiance.
Cava, for example, has been working to make its dining rooms more inviting since at least mid-2024. QSR giants like Starbucks and Pizza Hut have followed suit, building locations with an emphasis on comfort and on experiential elements. Those changes make in-store experience a point of competition, in addition to value plays.
White Castle’s “Castle of Tomorrow” location has a redesigned interior layout, in keeping with the push by other brands, from Subway to Cava, to improve the ambiance of their dining rooms. White Castle’s new store has higher ceilings and vibrant colors inside, with an open layout, according to the press release. But this emphasis on interior flow and sensory experience does not come at the expense of off-premise or digitally focused-channels; the new store includes a dedicated mobile order pickup window intended to speed up service on in-app orders, while keeping the counter open for on-premise orders.
The location also takes a page out of Chick-fil-A’s drive-thru design playbook, with a double drive-thru featuring “hospitality doors that allow team members to personally deliver meals to guests in their cars.” White Castle said this design is intended to strengthen customer service — a major factor in Chick-fil-A’s ability to outperform the QSR segment in customer satisfaction, despite long overall wait times.
But an emphasis on throughput requires an emphasis on efficiency, and White Castle said it has redesigned its kitchen layout to streamline prep areas
