Red Robin to Test Smaller Restaurant

Casual dining chain Red Robin Gourmet Burgers Inc. (Greenwood Village, Colo.) plans to test a smaller prototype restaurant as a complement to its current 5600-square-foot casual dining format.

The new prototype restaurant will be between 2000 and 4000 square feet and will include a modified menu and service format. The company will test the prototype in a select number of locations to determine if the reduced footprint enables the chain to accelerate development into non-traditional locations that were previously unavailable based on space requirements of the larger format restaurant.

At least one smaller prototype restaurant is expected to open before the end of the year, with several other locations identified for future sites, primarily in the Denver area.

In addition, Red Robin is opening 10 full-sized restaurants in fiscal 2011. The casual dining chain, founded in 1969, operates more than 450 Red Robin restaurants located throughout the U.S. and Canada.