Perkins is known for its Mammoth Muffins. But its new store prototype, Griddle & Go, goes in the other direction. It clocks in at a lean 1,500 square feet, with seating for 65 guests and digital-ordering tools for the on-the-move crowd.
The company called the new design an elevated café experience. Key elements include digital menu boards and kiosks, which are firsts for the 66-year-old brand.
Steven Roach, chief technology officer, acknowledged the brand has been old-fashioned about digital innovation. “We’re well aware that technology has not been at the forefront of our brand,” he said. “Griddle & Go will help us engage with our customers in new ways.”
Griddle & Go has been designed to fit into traditional storefront spaces as well as less-obvious locations, like casinos, convenience stores, truck stops and hospitals. The hope is to extend Perkins’ appeal to the TikTok generation.
Steven Roach, chief technology officer at Perkins, says the brand’s new Griddle & Go model can work in non-traditional spaces such as casinos.
“Young consumers expect a frictionless interaction with pay-at-the-table, order-at-the-table, all those kinds of things,” Roach said. “That’s where we’re headed.”
This comes on the heels of an overhaul for the company. In June, it announced it changed its name from Perkins Restaurant & Bakery to Perkins American Food Company. Earlier in the year it brought on a new brand president, Toni Ronayne. Other reinvigoration efforts have been underway since Huddle House bought Perkins out of bankruptcy in 2019; the two are under parent company Ascent Hospitality.
Perkins, which according to Franchise Times Top 400 data grew systemwide sales just 0.7 percent in 2023, to $539 million, has seen its unit count decline since 2020. It ended that year with 289 restaurants. By the end of 2023 it had 266.
With Griddle & Go, the brand is starting small, with the footprint and the speed of the rollout.
“We’ll be launching our first one in Saint-Isidore, Canada, which is near Montreal, in a couple weeks,” said Roach, adding that more locations will come online soon in Texas and California.
The sleek design should be a draw for existing and prospective franchisees, he said. “It’s smaller so real estate is easier to find, operational costs are less, inventory is less, the waiver is less,” he said. “We think airports will work well for us, similar to IHOP Express.”
A typical legacy Perkins ranges in size from 6,000 to 6,500 square feet; a redesign of its traditional restaurant brought that down to around 3,000 square feet.
Along with what it’s doing with technology to appeal to customers, it’s also using new tools to learn about them.
“We’re using a cloud-based point-of-sale system with new credit card processing,” Roach said. “We’re going to be able to capture all that data to find out what’s working and what’s not, which will help us with more personalized marketing plans. We’re going to get a ton of operational efficiencies. It’s definitely new for us.”