But really, there's nothing revolutionary about drive-thrus and gourmet food. There are no golden arches, no huge menu boards and no oversized windows. In fact, there are no doors. It resembles the pedestrian skyways in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, with lots of neon to appeal to Generation X-ers and Baby Boomers. Motorists drive in one of three lanes under the kitchens that sit 12 feet overhead.
Customers select their meals from paper menus that change daily.
The attendants also communicate with the kitchen through headset radios. But Atkatz, who doesn't let outsiders in the kitchen for fear they will discover operation secrets, admits the system still needs tweaking. I long for a low-cal, nutritious meal that isn't time consuming. Like Kaysen, most consumers want their food almost as quickly as it takes them to drive from the order booth to pickup. Though Kaysen claims she'll wait as long as eight minutes for a drive-thru order without losing her patience, studies show that most consumers get edgy after two to three minutes.