Chick-fil-A updates family format with retro Grill

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 19, 1996 by Jack Hayes

MORROW, Ga. -- Taking its first stroll into "themed" family dining with the debut of Truett's Grill here this spring, Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A may be eyeing the new, smaller, more efficient format as a remake for its oversized and underperforming Dwarf House concept.

While company officials prefer to call the mid-May Truett's Grill debut only a test, they also report that the 11-unit Dwarf House chain continues to struggle with rising labor costs and sagging profits.

"We want to maintain our Dwarf House volumes [averaging more than $1.5 million per store currently], but using fewer people and less space," said James S. Collins, president of the $500 million company, which operates 640 quick-service restaurants in 34 states.

Modeled after the typical '40s-style short-order cafe, Truett's Grill will open with a redesigned and retooled kitchen capable of high-speed preparation, cooking and food delivery. The opening corresponds to the 50th anniversary of the original Dwarf Grill in Hapeville, Ga.

At 4,500 square feet, Truett's Grill also will mark a downsizing from the Dwarf House average of 5,800 square feet. The dining room will have 85 rather than 120 seats -- and the menu will be shorter.

Collins and Dwarf House president Don "Bubba" Cathy acknowledged that labor and other costs have eroded profits at Dwarf House. Neither would reveal actual profit figures, however.

"Our labor cost is far too high," said Collins, noting that full-sized Dwarf Houses employ as many as 125 in the front- and back-of-the-house.

With pared menus, shrunken kitchens and 40-percent fewer seats, the Truett's Grill prototype will require a staff of only 75.

"We're trying to reduce every cost, particularly labor," Bubba Cathy added. "Truett's is going to be more efficiently run."

Chick-fil-A founder, chairman and chief executive S. Truett Cathy said that the new family concept bearing his name would take on a distinctive 1940s theme.

Opened in 1946 and still operating at its original site, the Hapeville Dwarf Grill is where Cathy developed and first tested his signature breast-of-chicken sandwich. That restaurant was just fitted with a drive-thru window and a takeout entrance.

"Truett's Grill will take us back to the way things were the year we opened," Cathy said.

He added that the more contemporary- sounding Truett's Grill also eliminates any "negative" customer reaction in new markets, where the Dwarf House name isn't known.

Design and construction senior vice president Perry Ragsdale said the kitchen makeover is an efficiency move that makes use of new equipment and streamlined processing.

"Working with double-drive-thrus [since 1993, when Chick-fil-A entered the drive-thru-only nichel has helped us prove some new systems," Ragsdale explained. "These changes are deep in the back-of-the-house.

While the Truett's Grill theme is being stated "architecturally," Ragsdale said, does not attempt to re-create the style in all its stark detail.

Rather, the design borrows certain traditional elements and fuses them with other, more modern design styles.

"The uniforms, though, have a flair that will definitely take you back to the '40s," Ragsdale said.