A line of hot breakfast sandwiches introduced last fall boosted catering and gave Rising Roll a need for a new kitchen. The chain upgraded its coffee equipment when it added the sandwiches.

In the next year or so, Lassiter expects catering sales, which account for approximately half of total volume, to surge, thanks to the company's new gourmet breakfast menu of sandwiches, burritos and platters. The September introduction of the menu forced Rising Roll to take a hard look at its kitchen, which was tailored to individual dine-in and takeout customers, not catering.

Not all of the 12 Rising Roll stores are open for breakfast, but all offer breakfast catering, says Lassiter, who purchased the 11-year-old concept from its founders, Jeff and Bob Weiss, in 2007. “We wanted to make sure we were able to produce our breakfast in the kitchen,” plus make the kitchen more adept at handling catering orders, Lassiter says.

Two sandwich presses were moved closer to the front of the house so sandwiches can be delivered hot to guests. Each press can toast three sandwiches at a time.

The prototype is working so well that Lassiter plans to open versions of it in Cincinnati and Houston. He's also experimenting with an even smaller version, one that's 2,000 square feet and seats 52.

To create the new kitchen and a new, contemporary-looking dining room, Lassiter enlisted Bette Raburn, ASID, an Atlanta-based interior designer. Raburn and her husband, Jerry, are also Rising Roll franchisees who operate two stores: the prototype and their first location, a 2,400-square-foot, 50-seat location near the Atlanta airport.

At 2,600 square feet, the prototype is larger, but the extra space was devoted to the dining room, which now seats 92. The suburban Atlanta location, near several major hospitals and the headquarters of two major firms, needed more seats to accommodate customer traffic.

Rising Roll's new kitchen enables staff to make and pack catering orders without interfering with preparation of dine-in orders. Catering accounts for about half of total sales

The result is smoother traffic and work flow. “Everybody's not on top of each other,” Raburn says.

The kitchen has two focal pieces of equipment: A 10-burner range and an 18-foot, two-sided prep table equipped with cold wells. The range is partly responsible for higher production—it has four more burners than the ranges in the older stores.

The prep table is new to the kitchen but not to the concept. A smaller prep table was located in the ordering area, where sandwiches were made to order as customers watched. Relocating it to the kitchen allows catering orders to be prepared on one side and dine-in orders on the other.

“The prep table is a huge catering station,” Lassiter says. “In previous designs, catering was sporadic,” he adds. “Now it's in a centralized location.”

One value-engineering step: replacing a 6-foot grab-and-go case with a 3-foot model. The smaller case is more energy efficient and makes product look better.

The only new piece of equipment is a warming oven that holds ingredients for breakfast sandwiches, which are made to order.

To save money in the long run, Raburn specified several green touches such as an on-demand water heater, whose exterior location saves 45 square feet of kitchen space; accelerator hand-dryers; and programmable thermostats.

Overall, the prototype's cost, about $150,000 to $200,000 per store, is the same as the previous design, due to high construction and materials costs, Lassiter says.

Still, the smaller footprint will save franchisees money in lease costs. The newer stores are 400 square feet smaller, which, with average rents about $40 per square foot per year, could mean a $16,000 savings in rent.

Saving franchisees money in this market is key, says Mark Siebert, CEO of iFranchise Group, a Homewood, Ill.-based franchise consulting firm. “You want to do everything you can to reduce the size of the initial investment and operational overhead,” Siebert says, adding that he counsels clients to reduce their concepts' footprint if it can be done without sacrificing product and service quality.

As efficiently as the building was planned, Lassiter says there is room for value engineering. To start, he's asked Rising Roll's equipment suppliers to offer lower-cost alternatives to every piece of equipment in the kitchen.

The Raburns, too, see some room for improvement. The kitchen, Bette Raburn says, needs more storage for catering boxes, packaging and dry goods such as potato chips. Because the kitchen is so tightly designed, additional shelving will be built above current work stations. “Everyone we hire from now on will be 6-5,” Jerry Raburn jokes.

Otherwise, “I'd say we're 90 percent happy,” he says.