Chick-Fil-A Debuts Four-Lane Drive-Thru Eatery

Chick-fil-A (Atlanta) is opening its first-of-a-kind elevated drive-thru restaurant. Located south of metro Atlanta, the Chick-fil-A Jodeco Road features four drive-thru lanes and a second-story kitchen that uses a conveyor belt to send orders to the lines below. (The locale is drive-thru only.)

The concept was strategically designed to increase speed-of-service and simplify the drive-thru experience for guests, the company said. The kitchen at the Jodeco locale is two times larger than a typical Chick-fil-A restaurant kitchen, and the food conveyor system allows for a meal to be delivered to a team member every six seconds.

“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. “With this new design, 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 four-lane drive-thru has the capacity to support two to three times more vehicles than a standard Chick-fil-A restaurant drive-thru, the company says. The restaurant provides two options for guests to get their meal: (1) they can order ahead through the Chick-fil-A app and pick up using lanes dedicated to such orders; or (2) they can place their order with a team member in the traditional drive-thru lanes.

The company has not disclosed how many such eateries it plans to roll out in the future. (It’s also testing a mobile-app/takeout-only concept for urban settings.) Chick-fil-A’s franchisees operate more than 3000 restaurants across the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, and the company also plans to expand by 2030 into Europe and Asia.