La Madeleine French Country Café will open its first new ground-up prototype in several years Thursday.
The 2,000-square-foot restaurant in Dallas’ NorthPark Mall, around the corner from a traditional location, incorporates design features, including a modular kitchen that will appear in another unit scheduled to open in early 2012 in Tysons Corner, Va., said Phil Costner, president and chief operating officer of the Groupe Le Duff division.
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The new Dallas restaurant has 90 seats in a mall corridor. The Tysons Corner location will have in-restaurant seating, Costner said.
The modular kitchen features moveable areas for salads, soups, sandwiches, sautéeing and finishing plates.
Tests conducted between December 2010 and January 2011 found the new kitchen could more than double the amount of plates turned out in older kitchens, Costner said.
The revamp also includes new staff uniforms, a dedicated to-go area, more cash registers and revised electronic menu boards.
Take a look at the new restaurant
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