Does Outback Restuarant Have Cameras Inside Bar Area

Here's what the Outback Steakhouse of the future looks like

Posted: May 14, 2022 five:30 PM CDT

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business

(CNN) -- Outback Steakhouses of the future won't be nearly as expansive as the outback itself.

Like many coincidental dining chains, Outback is pivoting toward a mail-pandemic time to come in which delivery and takeout orders are increasingly important to the bottom line. And then the chain, known for its Bloomin' Onions and steaks, is reducing the size of its restaurants by 17% to clock in at near five,000 square feet.

These new and more compact locations will include smaller kitchens and expanded pickup areas for takeout and delivery.

"Outback is a 34-year-old brand with a fairly large national footprint," Brett Patterson, president of Outback Steakhouse, said in an interview with CNN Business organisation. "The brand resonates fairly well in smaller markets, but in society to go on to abound nosotros wanted a more outgoing image."

The chain's owner, Bloomin' Brands, said in its near recent earnings report that off-premise sales — meaning takeout and commitment — made up 29% of Outback's revenue in the fourth quarter, nearly double the concluding three months of 2019. The brand's delivery partnership with DoorDash in 2019 proved "very fortunate during the pandemic," Patterson said, adding that commitment is here to stay: "The consumer isn't going back to how they behaved a few years ago."

And that is what'due south informing Outback's rethinking of its restaurants. The new locations have a dedicated space for pickup orders, and kitchens will include "completely new equipment" capable to better handle the increase in off-premise orders, Patterson said, including clamshell grills that permit kitchen staff melt steaks in half the fourth dimension.

As for diners, one of the biggest aesthetic changes they'll run across is the bar: Once a equus caballus shoe-shape in the middle of the restaurant, the new bars take been pushed back against the wall. Patterson said they comprise virtually seventy% of seats compared to the previous bar layout, but are notwithstanding a "focal point" because of a freshened upward design and visibility from the entrance.

Outback also conducted a "table efficiency study" and discovered that it needed fewer four-top tables, and then the concatenation swapped them out for additional two-peak tables while yet seating the aforementioned number of customers — 187 — equally earlier. Smaller-format restaurants can also help Outback aggrandize into cities where existent estate is more than expensive. Patterson said the brand is eying further expansion in Texas and the Southeast.

So far, four redesigned restaurants have opened in Texas, Due north Carolina and Ohio, and Outback aims to add between 75 to 100 new restaurants in coming years. The planned growth follows a decade of decline, as the number of its United states of america locations has dropped 10% from 775 to 694, according to restaurant consulting firm Technomic.

"In the side by side few years, you'll run into significantly more growth than in 2022," Patterson said.

Outback's resurgence comes after several quarters of positive results, with sales upwardly 9.ii% in its nigh recent quarter. That follows the success of other big chains, which take fared a lot amend than small restaurants and independents, thanks in large part to easier access to cash and the ability to lean on parent companies to lead the way on strategic shifts.

In 2021, the top 500 restaurant chains deemed for 63% of total US eating house sales, up from 58% in 2019, Technomic said.

Source: https://www.cbs58.com/news/heres-what-the-outback-steakhouse-of-the-future-looks-like

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