Chick-fil-A is taking its drive-thru to new heights with its latest digital-focused concept. The company is set to open its first two-story, four-lane “elevated drive-thru” on Thursday in McDonough, Georgia, near its home base in Atlanta. 

The building features a kitchen on the second floor, plus a conveyor belt system that delivers orders to team members at two meal fulfillment areas on the ground below. It offers multiple ways for customers to get their chicken sandwich fix: two “Mobile Thru” lanes for guests that order ahead using the Chick-fil-A app, and two traditional lanes where guests can place their order with a team member. 

It’s the second of two test concepts from Chick-fil-A this year. The other, a first-of-its-kind Mobile Pickup store, opened in New York City this spring. Both are geared toward on-the-go guests with an appetite for convenience. 

With digital orders accounting for over half of all sales in some markets, the company recognizes the need to evolve its physical spaces to meet the demands of an increasingly omnichannel world, says Jonathan Reed, executive director of design for Chick-fil-A. 

“It all goes back to relentlessly pursuing the customer—understanding what their desires are and how they want to interact with the brand,” he says. “Digital is obviously a big part of that. The pandemic accelerated a lot of adoption there. Now, it’s like, ‘OK, what’s the high watermark? Where is the customer going to take us? Because that’s where we need to be.’”

With a kitchen that’s twice the size of a typical restaurant and four lanes capable of holding up to 75 cars, the elevated drive-thru was designed to unlock faster throughput and larger volumes. Similar to other existing Chick-fil-A drive-thru-only locations, there’s no dining room or dine-in service. But by building the kitchen above the drive-thru lanes, meals are expedited to team members who deliver orders directly to the customer in a space protected by the upper level, so hospitality isn’t sacrificed for speed of service. 

Reed says the notion of accelerating the guest experience while keeping human interaction at the forefront was a guiding principle throughout the design process. 

“How does digital meet physical? How do we integrate all of that together? Those are the overarching design principles that we’re always asking ourselves,” he says. “We’re dedicated to the genuine hospitality that will always show up in any channel that we’re in, so every meal at this elevated drive-thru will be delivered by a team member. That’s a non-negotiable for us.”

So, why did Chick-fil-A choose to build upward for this new concept? Reed says that decision was driven by the need to maximize limited space. 

“If you don’t go up, you have to go out, and that gets harder for a lot of different reasons,” he says. “We’re always trying to solve the equation of space. It’s a limited commodity, so you have to be looking at inches and seconds.”

There are plenty of other special considerations Chick-fil-A had to tackle when putting this model together, including developing the technology for the food transportation system. Separating elements of the order assembly process with physical distance can create a host of challenges, “so getting the food to our team members down below was a big hurdle,” Reed says. The company collaborated with tech vendors to create a conveyor system capable of delivering a meal down to the ground level every six seconds. 

“I was just watching team members get trained on it the other day, and it’s super intuitive,” Reed says. “We wanted to take a cognitive load off of them so they can really focus on the most value-add steps in their job. The food delivery system was a key part of that.” 

The meal fulfillment areas also are self-sustaining, with drink and dessert production stations, dry goods, and warewashing all within reach to ensure employees “don’t ever need to leave their posts,” he adds. 

Another key consideration was helping people navigate the format. Chick-fil-A isn’t new to drive-thru-only concepts, but the fresh design still represents a visual departure from what guests typically encounter. 

“They might see that it looks different and wonder where they’re supposed to go or what they need to do as a customer,” Reed says. “Our team did a phenomenal job with what I call the ‘front door.’ As customers come into the lot, we’ve got this portal with signs pointing you in the right direction. Whether you’re digital-focused or you want to engage with a team member and do our traditional face-to-face ordering, you can look at that and know how to navigate into the right lane.”

The flow of traffic also was designed with third-party delivery in mind. There’s a dedicated lane for those drivers to quickly pull in, grab an order, and head back out. 

“Their whole thing is speed, right? We want to meet that demand because they’ve got a customer on the back end that they’re trying to be fast with,” Reed says. “They’re going to see it, they’re going to know which lane to get in, and my bet is that they’re going to love it because time is money for those guys.”

Chick-fil-A plans to evaluate the success of the elevated drive-thru through a three-pronged approach that considers guests, employees, and financials. 

“It always starts with the customer,” Reed says. “We’re going to evaluate if we’re meeting the needs on speed, taste, convenience, and overall satisfaction—all of the things that we’re always going to measure. Then, from a team member and local owner-operator standpoint, it’s about making sure they can do the job in a way that’s efficient, that we’re not adding steps, that it’s intuitive, and that we’re giving them the space and equipment to meet the needs of the customers. I think that if we do those things, the demand should be there, and then the financials should take care of themselves.”

The company sees potential for more elevated drive-thru locations in the future, but it isn’t rushing the process, he adds. 

“It’s definitely a prototype,” Reed says. “We’ve got one that we’ll learn from, and we’ve got some good hypotheses that we’ll be testing, but we’ll be patient and diligent about it. The hope is that we’ll knock it out of the park and then start making some decisions about how we breathe this into our portfolio of offerings.”