In October 2019, the RJ Russo team was delivering the first Dutch Bros. modular drive-thru. We couldn’t have imagined how much the fast food world would change between that delivery day and today.

The onset of the pandemic and its lingering effects have changed the future of fast food design forever. Fast food chains including Taco Bell and KFC, have opted for a similar modular design to  Dutch Bros. The reason is that restaurants, especially those that specialize in fast food, realized they didn’t need indoor seating to attract customers. They were able to continue to safely serve customers without the need for indoor seating.

Today, three years into the pandemic, restaurants are now building modular locations at a faster rate than a traditional brick and mortar location, with fewer permits, a shorter timeline (think weeks instead of months), and multiple lane design. They’re able to serve the same number of customers and can expand to new locations faster because of the efficiency of modular design.

To read the rest of the QSR deep dive into this trend in this article How Covid Forever Changed the Future of Fast Food Design.