A New Palette for the Palate : Renovation Is on the Menu for Many Chain Eateries

Later this year when Carl’s Jr. rolls out its new fast-food eateries in Southern California, diners will see a new, cleaner-looking exterior, a state-of-the-art salad bar and an interior design that opens the kitchen up so diners can watch their food being prepared.

Even Happy, the Anaheim-based chain’s longstanding star logo, will be sporting a sportier look.

Carl’s Jr., seeking to keep and attract customers by avoiding a tired appearance, is one of several eateries changing its looks. New color schemes and designs are also on the menu at Del Taco, Mimi’s Cafe, Denny’s and Chart House.

Some restaurant experts say that consumers, perhaps driven by the fast pace of television, expect chains to change their looks more frequently than before. “The old [redecorating] cycle was every eight years or so,” said Paul Hitzelberger, vice president of Orange-based Del Taco Inc. “Now it seems to be down to about a five-year cycle.”

Whatever the reason, restaurateurs agree that it doesn’t pay to delay renovations.

“The reality is that nobody wants to go to a place that looks old and tired,” said Hal Sieling, a Carlsbad-based restaurant industry consultant. “Denny’s is a classic example of a place that got run down, and its profitability got hurt as a result of that.”

Restaurant chains agree that a dated look--often equated to a lack of cleanliness--can send patrons running for the door as fast as a bad menu.

“Cleanliness goes beyond a strict definition of what’s clean,” said Robert Sandelman, a Brea-based restaurant industry consultant who regularly polls consumers. “It includes a feel or perception. So if you’ve got a dated concept with ‘70s colors, there’s an impression that the restaurant in general is dated and maybe not as clean as it should be.”

Psychologists have long been aware of the power of colors, said Sue Ross, a color expert with Monterey Carpets in Santa Ana. That’s why hospitals are introducing warmer colors that ease patients’ fears, schools are incorporating colors that can calm excited students and jail wardens favor colors that can help to soothe cooped-up inmates. Colors can also make or break a restaurant, Ross said. “I’ve seen restaurants literally fail because the design work was indescribably poor. People felt so badly while they were eating that they never came back.”

Denny’s, the nation’s largest full-service restaurant chain, is spending $28 million to remodel its admittedly tired restaurants in Southern California and introduce its new logo. Its new restaurants feature brighter lighting, gabled entrances, better landscaping and interiors that are supposed to make the chain’s eateries more attractive to families.

But rather than risk alienating longtime customers, Denny’s will maintain some important links to the past. Its new signs will incorporate the chain’s traditional yellow “French diamond” shield, but the lettering has been modernized and set on a dark-green border.

Carl’s Jr., which will spend a minimum of $50,000 per store to refurbish 35 restaurants each quarter through 1998, faces the tough task of incorporating the new Green Burrito menu at many of its 650 establishments. The chain has created three prototype stores to help determine the best way to blend its burgers and Green Burrito’s Mexican-style fast food under one roof so that their joint marketing agreement won’t confuse or alienate customers.

Del Taco is rolling out its “Prototype 2000” restaurant, which also incorporates neon lighting, courtyards and a two-story exterior that is designed to make the chain’s eateries stand out in urban locations.

Mimi’s Cafe, the Tustin-based family eatery with 21 locations, is changing its pastel color scheme to widen its appeal. The chain’s decidedly feminine color scheme dates back to 1979, when the first unit opened in Anaheim, according to Mimi’s President Tom Simms. “Market research determined that women were deciding where families were going to eat, so we said, ‘Let’s design something that’s going to be attractive to them,’ ” Simms said.

The formula has worked well at the company’s restaurants, Simms said, but the pinks and other pastels make some men uneasy, particularly in blue-collar neighborhoods.

Simms’ solution: Renovate the restaurants, using wooden beams, bricks, stones and black-and-white checked tablecloths. But, like Denny’s, Mimi’s is keeping some familiar touches. The dining rooms feature an earthier look, but wall decorations and the menu still play heavily upon the chain’s traditional links to New Orleans and Paris.

Climate and location also play a role. Chart House Enterprises, the Solana Beach-based chain that operates 65 restaurants nationwide, is refurbishing with earth tones, but the palette varies according to location.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule that eateries should be remodeled on a regular schedule.

“If you’ve got a neighborhood place that’s steeped in tradition, you don’t want to dramatically change it,” industry consultant Sandelman said. “You don’t take an Irish pub with dark wood and go to earth tones and skylights.”