1. A hand-made communal table adds a focal point—and a market feel—to the new Flippers.

2. Cans of tomatoes and bottles of olive oil give life to Flippers’ motto: Fresh Honest Ingredients.

“The food was amazing—not just the pizza, but the pasta, wings, everything,” says Corey Dehus, senior designer, brand communications at the Columbus, Ohio-based retail design and branding firm.

But the drab interior, a pastiche of heavy wood, somber colors and sepia-tone photos of Italy, “didn't emulate the quality of the food,” Dehus says. Nor did it play up the seven-unit concept's motto: Fresh Honest Ingredients.

That's changed. Flippers' new restaurant, opened in May in Orlando, is energetic and vibrant, and sends plenty of fresh messages to patrons. A brick oven and a display kitchen let customers in on the pizza-making action. Tomato-red and spinach-green accents appear on tabletops and in booth fabric. Four-color posters of fresh tomatoes and basil, and farm workers harvesting those pizza essentials, decorate the walls. An uncluttered, clean layout says “fresh” in a more subtle way.

The redesign wheels began turning a year and a half ago, when Don Howard became president of the Orlando-based franchise company. Howard wanted the design to hammer home the fresh message; he also wanted an interior that could attract franchisees and take Flippers beyond its Florida base.

The design team at Chute Gerdeman started from scratch, with a long, narrow, 1,650-square-foot space in a mixed-use commercial development.

Dehus first addressed a few operational challenges: The previous design confused customers, who didn't know where to order or where to pick up their carryout orders. The new prototype places the carryout area near the entry; that's convenient for takeout customers and doesn't disturb dine-in customers. Signs also clearly identify the ordering counter and carryout areas.

Dehus totally reconfigured the lighting package to brighten the space. Pendants hang above booths, and recessed can lights provide ambient light. Spotlights highlight focal points such as the brick pizza oven. “We wanted to create some theater,” Dehus says.

3. Lights and signage draw customers’ attention to the brick pizza oven, one of the prototype’s major freshness cues.

4. Stained concrete makes for durable, easy-to-maintain flooring; the dark stain makes accent colors “pop” even more.

A display of canned tomatoes and bottles of olive oil near the POS system underline “fresh honest ingredients,” as do the posters of basil and tomatoes. Earthy touches such as wood paneling and the oak top of a communal table send “fresh” and “natural” vibes, and wall stencils read “hand-crafted freshness.”

Flippers didn't want the “fresh” and “healthy” messages to be too overbearing—hence the communal table, which was meant to add an element of fun to the design. “It's pizza; you eat it with your hands,” Dehus says. “That's important to remember, along with making a fresh statement.”

The communal table has been a hit with customers, who reserve it for family occasions, Howard says. Flippers executives want to create a name for the table, and are also toying with the idea of selling the solid-oak, commercial-grade table (suggested price: $2,500), which is hand-made in Florida, to customers.

A variety of seating, including booths, which weren't available in the previous design, also adds fun to the space, Dehus says. Bar-height tables and chairs, added to the second location, which opened in downtown Orlando in late June, add an extra element of energy.

Aside from adding the bar tables, the second iteration of the design needed no tweaks, either from a design or financial standpoint.

Howard says he is “pretty happy” with the buildout cost, which is in line with the cost of the former building. Total opening costs for Flippers range from $250,000 to $450,000, depending on the market and the size of the building.

According to Howard, the restaurant's ideal building size is 2,100 to 2,400 square feet, with 60 to 90 seats, and in markets with both daytime and evening populations. As for demographics: “It's pizza,” Howard says dryly. “Everybody eats pizza.”

So far, Flippers executives are “very satisfied” with the effect the new design is having on sales, says Scott Kousaie, Flippers' president and founding partner. “We've been happy with overall volume so far,” Kousaie says, though he adds that it's still “too early in the game” to divulge specific sales figures.

Howard is enthusiastic as well. “It's created a lot of hype in the market,” he says. “We've always done a good job of exceeding customer expectations from a food-quality perspective. Now I think we really get a 'wow' when they see the new store design.”