Salad prep, now handled by grill cooks, not servers, is now closer to the pickup window. Salads get to guests faster and in crisper condition.

That's why McKeesport, Pa.-based Kings Family Restaurants removed 10 percent of the space from its kitchen and added $30,000 worth of new equipment. The result: more consistent product, a half-point reduction in food costs, a ticket time that's eight minutes, not 14, and a 20 percent hike in guest counts.

“We're definitely, being in a competitive market, focused on improving execution,” says Tom Webb, director of operations at Kings, which owns and operates 35 full-service restaurants. “We basically looked at our kitchen and our product to see how we could execute more efficiently and quickly.” The last kitchen remodel, Webb notes, took place at Kings' Bentleyville, Pa., location three years ago.

Kings enlisted the help of its equipment and supplies provider to remodel the kitchen at a restaurant in Beaver, Pa., and design the kitchen for a new Kings location in Neville Island, Pa. In both projects, designers made considerable adjustments to both the equipment package and traffic flow.

The new kitchen required a new equipment package, removing several pieces and exchanging others for more technologically forward, efficient pieces.

A two-pan microwave steamer can heat a gallon of soup, without scorching, in 12 minutes. Employees are “most excited” about the new piece of equipment, says Tom Webb, Kings' director of operations.

Similarly, cooks once heated soup and steamed vegetables on a six-burner range. Now a combination microwave-steamer does that work, and the six-burner range has been replaced with a four-burner model.

Because they do not need constant attention, as do open range or broiler flames, the new steamer and convection oven have reduced food waste, Webb says. As a result, food costs are half a percentage point lower.

Kings also replaced its fryers with higher-priced models that boast quicker recovery times. The new fryers have an internal system that automatically filters frying oil several times a day. (In a “green” move, Kings contracted with a company that hauls used oil away and turns it into bio-fuel.) Longer-lasting frying oil will make the new fryers more economically efficient in the long run, says Chris Whalen, Kings' chief financial officer.

New gas fryers sport a quicker recovery time as well as an internal system that filters the frying oil several times a day. Longer-lasting oil helps offset the fryers’ higher price tag.

A streamlined kitchen design has done its part in improving ticket times. The two major changes: putting salad prep up front, where grill cooks, not servers, prepare salads; and moving the dishroom forward.

Both changes reduced steps for the employees. The new salad arrangement, complete with new refrigeration space for ingredients, has also improved food quality and safety; grill cooks are ServSafe certified, while most servers are not.

The up-front dishroom keeps the kitchen cleaner. Busers and servers clear dishes more frequently because they don't have to travel the length of the kitchen to deposit bus boxes in the dishroom.

The dishroom, formerly further back in the kitchen, is now up front. That means fewer steps for servers and busers, and more opportunities for them to clear dishes.

So far, the new design is paying off, not only in reduced food cost and faster ticket times but in sales: Sales at the Beaver location, which re-opened Dec. 17, are 30 percent higher than pre-remodel, Whelan says.

It was, however, no small investment: Whalen says that Kings spent almost $500,000 in reconfiguring the kitchens at both the existing and new location. The new equipment package alone, he says, costs about $30,000 more than the prior package.

But it's money well spent, Whalen says: “If I can buy stuff and make the guest experience better, it's worth it.”