Business
El Pollo Loco Unveils New L.A. Mex Restaurant Design with Enhanced Off-Premise Convenience and Digital Footprint to Meet Evolving Customer Demand
Flexible and Modular Design Inspired by L.A. Mex Identity—SoCal Style and Mexican Heritage COSTA MESA, Calif., Dec. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- El Pollo
About this update from El Pollo Loco Holdings, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"Flexible and Modular Design Inspired by L.A. Mex Identity—SoCal Style and Mexican Heritage COSTA MESA, Calif., Dec. 02, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- El Pollo Loco, Inc. (“El Pollo Loco” or “Company) (Nasdaq: LOCO), the nation’s leading fire-grilled chicken restaurant chain, today unveiled its new restaurant of the future designed to enhance off-premise convenience powered by a more robust and frictionless digital experience. The re-imagined El Pollo Loco restaurants have been inspired by the changing habits of consumers to enjoy a more digital-forward and contactless off-premise experience that was inevitably sped up by the COVID-19 pandemic. The new concept will also feature a modern interpretation of the brand’s heritage and strengths, including iconography distinct to Los Angeles and the El Pollo Loco L.A. Mex brand. There are two versions of this new restaurant design. One version is fully focused on driving business off-premise and has a take-out window, a dual drive-thru, dedicated curbside pick-up parking spaces, and patio seating but no indoor dining room. The second version includes a dual drive-thru, dedicated curbside pick-up parking spaces, and a smaller than typical dining room that opens up to an expansive patio through the use of flexible garage style doors. When open these garage doors seamlessly blend the indoor and outdoor experience and increase the comfort level of customers dining inside by enabling them to enjoy their meal in an airy, well ventilated environment. The restaurant designs share an enhanced digitized experience – including cubbies for mobile to-go orders, a double drive-thru with digital menu boards, and GPS-enabled curbside pick-up, all integrated with the company’s dynamic and versatile mobile app. To honor the brand’s heritage and highlight what makes El Pollo Loco so unique, subtle brand cues permeate throughout the entire restaurant, from the cleaver door handles (which is a nod to the fact that all chicken is cut to order) to the turning fork chandeliers (which repurposes a tool of trade used by the brand’s skilled Grill Masters). Similarly, murals, imagery and city maps evoking the brand’s 40-year Los Angeles hometown roots on the interior and exterior walls. “Where you will see our commitment to design manifest itself in the most dramatic of ways is with our new restaurant of the future,” s...