QSR October 2022

INNOVATION / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 92

out west but also in Maryland and Virginia, and all are company owned. It is slated to add 13 new outlets (with six already opened ) in 2022. To respond to customers, the brand debuted its Digital Café in 2021, which features drive-thru, curbside pickup, digital kiosk, and mobile-app ordering. There are now six of them. The increase in digital cafés stems from “aligning where the consumer is headed,” CEO Steve Vaughan says. Two-thirds of revenue derives from off-premises dining. Café Rio’s new design highlights an open kitchen, enabling customers to watch meals pre pared fresh to order. It removed the traditional cashier so guests can check-out digitally, either in-store, at the kiosk or app or online, before they arrive, or at the drive-thru. To maintain hospitality, the unit assigns a f loor ambassador to help with ordering and help customers use the kiosks. The units average about 2,000–2,200 square feet, rather than the standard 2,400–2,600. “Some markets don’t justify the full investment,” Vaughan says, noting the digital cafes will allow the brand to open in areas it otherwise might not have at a cheaper cost. The newer cafes continue to feature inside dining, but with fewer tables. They also require less kitchen space, and don’t need a dine-in line. COVID accelerated this move toward digital cafes, Vaughan says. “People being pressed for time has always been the case,” he says. But after COVID, people started picking up and continue to do so. Its third-party delivery sales were 8 percent pre-virus, dou bled to 16 percent, and then tripled and now has returned to about 10 percent. In the future, Vaughan envisions one-third to one-half of new eateries will be digital cafes. “It fits the customer’s lifestyle and helps us from a cost perspective because rents are lower,” he says. These digital cafes skew more toward Gen-Xers and millenni als who are more comfortable with ordering from apps and kiosks than Baby Boomers. Asked what will determine the success of its digital cafe, Vaughan replies, “It’s customer acceptance. We have to continue to evolve with the customer, and as long as people are on the go and in a hurry, we have to change with them. If people decide to return to dining in, we’d change with them.” These chains moving toward digital cafe achieve several goals at once, says Kevin Rice, an executive at Bounteous, who oversees the restaurant coverage at the consulting company, which specializes in digital media. Including: operating a new model that allows for cost-saving and more efficiencies such as reducing staff costs; and smaller footprints so start-up costs are lessened, whether renting or owning the land. Sitting down and waiting for tables isn’t convenient for most consumers anymore. “The pace of life has intensif ied,” Rice says. He adds quick-service eateries can improve hospitality through customer data platforms. This technology “captures all your customers’ data, preferences, what they order, so they can be communicated in a more personalized way,” he says. Succeeding at operating digital cafe depends on mastering sev eral skills, Rice says, like getting food orders accurately rendered every time and using geolocation services to fulf ill orders fresh and hot to customers. “We’re seeing fast casuals adapting digital and creaiting a new category, where they offer broader menus and higher quality ingredients, with all the ease of a [quick-service res taurant],” he says. q

Gary Stern is a regular contributor to Food News Media and is based in New York City.

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OCTOBER 2022 | QSR | www.qsrmagazine.com