Four months after closing and demolishing its 29-year-old Shallowford Road restaurant, Krystal will open the first of its redesigned restaurants in Chattanooga on Monday on the same site.
The new Krystal restaurant just north of Hamilton Place Mall in East Brainerd is smaller in size than its predecessor. But the fast-food chain is more than tripling its staff in anticipation of stronger sales from its new double-drive menu boards for pickup service and more modern interior restaurant design.
"Because of our great location here, we wanted to really put our best foot forward with this new prototype," Paul Macaluso, president and CEO of the Krystal Co., said Friday as he unveiled the new $1 million upgrade.
Krystal, the nation's second oldest fast-food restaurant chain, isn't changing its menu. But like its famous small, square hamburgs, the new restaurant design for Krystal is smaller and in a square format. Since its debut in August, the new restaurant prototype has boosted sales dramatically at every new location.
"With the same menu and same location, but with the new brand new buildings and improved efficiency, we've seen sales increases anywhere from 30 percent to 100 percent," Macaluso said. "That's better than expected and is a great return on our investment - and it is also great for adding more employees."
The Shallowford Road restaurant, which previously had 20 employees, is hiring 72 full- and part-time workers for its opening Monday. The Shallowford Road restaurant will stay open around the clock for its drive-through service.
The new prototypes are 1,800 square feet in size, down from the previous 2,200-square-foot model. But the new design includes bigger drive throughs and higher and more open ceilings in the 48-seat eating area, along with wider spaces for workers in the kitchen and drive-through window area. It's all designed to help better serve the growing drive-through or delivery market, which now accounts for more than 70 percent of the typical Krystal restaurant sales.
Krystal has debuted the new design in Jackson, Mississippi and Tuscaloosa, Alabama in August and Krystal has also added the new design in Tifton, Georgia and Memphis.
Next year, Krystal expects to open seven to 12 of the new models and over the next five years up to 100 restaurants will either be remodeled or scrapped and rebuilt, including many of the 19 company-owned stores in the Chattanooga market.
Krystal currently operates 227 company-owned restaurants and 122 franchised units.
"Forty percent of our company-owned restaurants are 40 or more years old," Macaluso said.
Krystal, which was founded in Chattanooga in 1932 and is the nation's second oldest fast-food restaurant chain behind only White Castle, is now headquartered in Atlanta where its owner, the private equity firm Argonne Capital Group, is based. But the new restaurant designs pay homage to Krystal's roots in Chattanooga, displaying the names of founders Rodolph B. Davenport and J. Glenn Sherrill on one of its walls.
Outside the building, a chrome version of the famous square Krystal hamburg is displayed on the side of the restaurant.
Charlene Harris, a 10-year employee with Krystal is is the new manager of the Shallowford Road Krystal, said the new restaurant design "makes the work flow a lot smoother and our employees just love it."
To help celebrate the new Krystal design coming to its hometown, Macaluso on Friday handed out $20,839 in checks from the Krystal Foundation to eight area elementary schools for a variety of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) programs.
"The foundation is Krystal's legacy, and Chattanooga is extra special to us, because it's where Krysal was born," Macaluso said.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340.