A couple of years ago, when operators began to realize the true power of off-premise business, many of them began making over their kitchens to create room for digital-only makelines. These focused areas allow operators to push through orders for pickup and delivery, without jamming up the efficiency for on-premise traffic. Chipotle Mexican Grill, for example, was an early adopter of the digital makeline. The high-tech lines feature LCD screens to highlight which ingredients to add to each order. In July, the fast casual reported the digital makelines bring in average unit volumes of more than $1 million per year.

Technology is becoming smarter and more affordable, resulting in kitchens that are increasingly automated. Innovations range from robotic fry cooks like Miso’s Flippy to fully automated, stand-alone pizza machines like Piestro, but also include less obvious advances such as the latest combi ovens or software that automates inventory or labeling. Supporters tout automation’s ability to save labor, make kitchens more efficient and reduce human contact—a key concern during the pandemic.

When is a restaurant brand not quite a restaurant brand? When it’s a virtual concept—one that only exists in the digital realm. A large number of restaurants, from independents to mega-chains such as Chili’s (It’s Just Wings), Applebee’s (Neighborhood Wings by Applebee’s) and Chuck E. Cheese (Pasqually’s Pizza), have launched virtual brands amid the pandemic, expanding their portfolios—and SEO-friendly offerings—with limited additions to their ingredient inventories. Virtual brands can be a fairly pain-free to boost sales, but operators say it can also be a challenge to market a brand that has no brick-and-mortar footprint.

Catering has clearly been a casualty of the pandemic, but that hasn’t stopped restaurants from brainstorming how they’ll ride the upswing as business meetings shift off Zoom and at-home parties resume in full. After all, conditions have changed monumentally since February, when a boom in demand for large off-premise orders was already straining kitchens designed to produce meals solely for dine-in customers. Factor in the explosion of takeout and delivery business during the pandemic, and many operations realize they’ll lack the capacity to keep up if catering roars back. One solution has been opening their own catering kitchens, the facilities dedicated caterers use to crank out meals for a remote wedding reception or graduation party. By shifting big orders to those no-frills centers, concepts hope to spare their restaurant kitchens from burnout. Plus, the kitchens can be outfitted with equipment that’d be overkill for producing two entrees at a time.