Johnny Rockets Going Ahead With Kiosk-Powered Fast-Casual Restaurants

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Do you enjoy the pseudo-diner experience of the chain Johnny Rockets, but want your food faster? Last year, we learned that the chain was working on a fast-casual concept that would expand the brand away from standalone restaurants with waitstaff. The first of those restaurants is here: It’s called the Johnny Rockets Burger Factory, and it’s in Buffalo, NY.

Why is it a burger factory? The plan is to compete with the slightly-classier fast food chains that have been taking business from Johnny Rockets, like Five Guys and Smashburger. Those restaurants serve burgers more quickly, but the food is slightly better than a typical fast-food burger.

The Burger Factory, which the chain is calling an “offshoot,” is able to cook burgers faster than at a standard Johnny Rockets restaurant. It takes about fifty seconds instead of five whole minutes. Customers can order by kiosk instead of traditional table service, and presumably there is a lot less singing. (This may or may not be a selling point for you.)

The Buffalo restaurant is at the Walden Galleria, and it will soon have a sibling relatively nearby in Syracuse.

Johnny Rockets Seeks New Orbit [QSR]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist