Quick-service chains are increasingly using new store formats to drive traffic, improve operations, and modernize how customers interact with legacy brands. KFC is now making that strategy central to its U.S. recovery effort with a newly unveiled prototype in McKinney, Texas, outside Dallas. The company and trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News say the location is designed to test whether a different physical layout can help reignite customer interest in the brand.
KFC opens a new prototype in McKinney as a live test for future stores
KFC said its new “Open House” prototype made its debut in McKinney, Texas, during the week of September 24, 2026, and Nation’s Restaurant News reported that the 3,400-square-foot restaurant is intended to serve as a learning lab for the brand’s U.S. comeback plan. The design includes oversized windows, flexible indoor and outdoor seating, a breezeway, digital screens, self-order kiosks, dual drive-thru lanes, a dedicated mobile-order lane, and a delivery pickup area. KFC also built in a “celebration booth” and table-service elements, signaling that the company is testing more than just kitchen flow.
The company has tied the prototype directly to what KFC U.S. President Catherine Tan-Gillespie has described as the brand’s “four Ps” strategy: product, promotion, place, and price, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. In that framework, the new restaurant is the clearest expression yet of the “place” component. KFC’s global press materials from June 15, 2026, also identified McKinney as one of the first examples of its next-generation restaurant design, describing it as an open-concept format meant to reinterpret the chain’s heritage with more modern energy.
KFC has not said that the McKinney design is a finalized blueprint for all future U.S. locations. Instead, company executives told Nation’s Restaurant News that the prototype is meant to test what can be scaled, including labor deployment, digital ordering, daypart expansion, and menu simplification. That makes the launch significant not because of a large initial rollout, but because the company is using one highly visible store to gather operational data before wider adoption.
Texas is the confirmed launch market, but a broader rollout is still undefined
For now, the confirmed geography is narrow: McKinney, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, is the debut market for the new format. KFC’s global announcement in June said the Texas restaurant was expected to open in late summer, and reporting from Nation’s Restaurant News and QSR Magazine this week places the unveiling in late September 2026. That makes North Texas the first place where customers can see how KFC wants its next generation of U.S. restaurants to look and function.
What is not yet known is how many additional Texas locations, if any, will follow in the near term. KFC has not released a full list of future Open House sites in Texas, and it has not announced a statewide development count tied to this design. Nation’s Restaurant News reported that one franchisee, Stewart Restaurant Group in Minneapolis, has committed to opening another prototype, but no opening date for that location was publicly confirmed in the source material.
That leaves McKinney as both a local opening and a national test case. For Texas diners, the practical impact is immediate at one site, not systemwide. Customers at the McKinney restaurant can expect features not standard across older KFC units, including breakfast service, expanded beverages, a snack-focused “Go Bucket,” and a more digitally forward ordering setup, while other Texas markets may not see those changes unless KFC later confirms expansion.
The redesign is tied to KFC’s effort to reverse weak relevance and build higher sales
KFC executives have framed the redesign as a response to a brand challenge rather than a routine remodel program. Tan-Gillespie told Nation’s Restaurant News that KFC concluded the chain remained “loved but latent,” meaning consumers recognized the brand but were not engaging with it often enough in the present. The company’s comeback plan, first outlined in 2025, has already included refreshed marketing, new value offers, and the return of menu items such as potato wedges and popcorn chicken.
The McKinney prototype adds a real-estate and operations layer to that plan. According to Nation’s Restaurant News, KFC is using the site to test what executives called “AUV-maxxing,” or finding ways to increase average unit volumes through expanded dayparts, catering, beverage sales, and occasion-based visits rather than focusing only on cost cutting. The prototype’s menu is smaller than a traditional KFC menu, but the company says that is deliberate: executives told the publication the goal is to offer variety and customization with less back-of-house complexity.
For customers, the near-term takeaway is that KFC is experimenting with a different kind of visit, not just a different building. The company said the prototype blends digital tools with more visible in-person service, including lobby hosts and drive-thru order takers using handheld devices. KFC has stated that whatever works in McKinney could eventually inform changes across the U.S. system, but for now the company is treating the restaurant as a measured test rather than a chainwide conversion.