Being 102 years old can’t be easy for a restaurant brand. But Nathan’s Famous is betting a new store design will smooth any wrinkles of a concept that sizzled its first hot dog when handlebar mustaches and barbershop quartets were the rage.
The objective is to delight the customers who appreciate that heritage while heightening the chain’s appeal to the torn-jeans generations who’ve turned innovations such as third-party delivery into must-have features. Simultaneously, the new prototype addresses such current-day operational imperatives as speeding service and providing a setting where smartphone users can sit and recharge their handhelds.
“We’ve been around 102 years—we kind of needed a face-lift and a rebranding effort,” says Phil McCann, senior director of marketing for the 300-unit chain. “We worked for about 18 months to two years on a new design.”
The result: A new 3,000-square-foot, free-standing franchised restaurant in Cape Coral, Fla. The new North American prototype, built from the ground up, replicates the design sported by two restaurants in the Philippines.
The Cape Coral store is still in the honeymoon period, but the franchisee was “pleasantly shocked by the sales,” says McCann. He notes that a second store with the new design is already under construction in Miami, and elements such as a vertical drive-thru board and updated dining room menus are already appearing in existing stores.
Here’s a tour of the hot dog specialist’s new look.