Restauratour: Point of Difference

O’Charley’s prototype reflects its niche to help set it apart from the casual-dining pack.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 2/1/2007

Its name sounds like an Irish pub. Its brick and dark-green exterior, complete with a Gaelic-like mosaic, looks like an Irish pub. However, O’Charley’s is not an Irish pub. And that was a problem, as O’Charley’s executives found when they explored expansion into new markets. Customers were getting the wrong idea, not just about the restaurant’s menu, but about its entire market niche.

"Some people thought we were more upscale," says Dawn Boulanger, vice president of marketing for Nashville, Tenn.-based O’Charley’s, which has 232 casual-dining restaurants in the Midwest. "Then, when they came in, they said it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be."

In late 2004, the building became the focal point for an entire O’Charley’s branding initiative, which includes the menu, uniforms and even service style. The building, once a casual-dining look-alike with lots of brick and dark colors, now features a dramatic tower outside and a colorful, location-specific mural inside. Servers wear burgundy shirts instead of polos, and they’re encouraged to form a "deep personal relationship" with guests, says Jeff Warne, O’Charley’s concept president.

Favorite Local Place

O’Charley’s enlisted Dayton, Ohio-based Design Forum, a firm that handles both restaurant and retail spaces, to design the prototype. The mandate: to have the building communicate O’Charley’s niche to guests more quickly, says Scott Jeffrey, executive creative director at Design Forum. The Design Forum team used the phrase "favorite local place" as a filter: If a color, finish or decorative touch did not fit that description, it wasn’t used.

The team started by making the building smaller. Older O’Charley’s were as big as 6,900 square feet with 271 seats; the prototype averages 5,400 square feet with 183 seats. Based on research that revealed the average party has 2.3 guests, O’Charley’s also reconfigured seating to add more two-tops. In addition, O’Charley’s called on Strategic Restaurant Engineering, a Miami-based restaurant-consulting firm, to make the smaller kitchen more efficient.

The design team ditched an overabundance of brick and forest green in favor of wood finishes and a palette of vegetal reds and golds. Tables and booths are a red-toned, wood-looking laminate; tall dividers topped with glass panels separate the room into different dining areas. Overall, the look is more sophisticated, says Betty Kirk, general manager of the O’Charley’s location in Mt. Juliet, Tenn.

One of O’Charley’s design goals was to differentiate the interior from its casual-dining competitors. To do so, the design firm festooned the walls with sayings such as, "Come Back for Good Times," from founder Charley Watkins, who opened the first O’Charley’s in Nashville in 1971. "There’s a bit of mythology around the brand," Jeffrey explains.

Jeffrey also edited the historic photos that traditionally adorn each restaurant. Previously, photos had included events such as major fires or natural disasters; the edited group of photos depicts happier scenes such as heroic firefighters.

The one design element Jeffrey did not change is the large mural above the bar and visible from the foyer. The hand-painted mural includes the name of the community and its ZIP code, plus local cues such as sports teams and landmarks. To further personalize each restaurant, the name of the general manager is etched in one of the entryway’s interior windows.

A Warm Welcome

The first prototype opened in Niles, Ohio, last October. Two more units opened rapidly, the second in November in Mt. Juliet, Tenn., and the third in Grand Chute, Wis., in mid-December. A fourth is scheduled to open in Atlanta in February. All new O’Charley’s will feature the new design; a remodel package for existing restaurants includes signage, decorative items, and new uniforms and tableware.

Because the new locations opened quickly, O’Charley’s did not have time to do much in the way of tweaking or value engineering, Warne says. One future change: expanding the kitchen, which is "a little small" to handle existing volume.

But Warne isn’t complaining. While he won’t release the cost of the building or sales compared to older units, he says that the three new units "have met or greatly exceeded expectations," and that unit volume is "significantly higher" than older locations.

"Typically when you go to a new market, we have lower sales expectations," he says. "But the inverse has been true."