McDonald’s prototype features a glass front, helping customers see into the restaurant. | Photo courtesy of X.com user McFranchisee.
The future of McDonald’s is in an unmarked, nondescript warehouse with blacked-out front doors on Chicago’s south side.
It is only on the inside that you see the fast-food giant’s logo and “welcome” in several languages above a door to the warehouse. There is also a sign forbidding photos or videos. And so we did not take any.
Inside the warehouse, out of view from the front lobby, is a full-sized, single-story concept restaurant, the company’s newest prototype. McDonald’s revealed the restaurant to franchisees at its recent Worldwide convention in Las Vegas. After some tweaks the company expects to open it to franchisees whose restaurants are due for a remodel, or who are planning new locations.
The chain’s goal with the concept is to make the restaurant “unmistakably McDonald’s.” At the same time the prototype stands as a symbol for the modern way consumers interact with fast-food restaurants.
The first thing that sticks out are the windows. Much of the front of the restaurant is see-through, and if you stand in the right spot from where the parking lot would be, you can see all the way into the kitchen, to the red-and-gold containers above the French fry station.
This is by design. McDonald’s newest restaurant is as much about transparency as it is about generating digital orders. The company is working to improve the quality of its menu items, and showing the way the chicken sandwiches or espresso drinks or fries are made is part of that equation.
Whoa. Benson Boone opened the show, Google’s CEO dropped some serious insights… but what everyone’s talking about is @McDonalds unveiling their new design with playplace 🔥!
“McDonald’s Next”. More to come…
#McDWW26pic.twitter.com/IDtd7BCg77
— McFranchisee (@McFranchisee) June 1, 2026
So the kitchen is almost fully visible from the dining room, and even the parking lot. There is a window to the station where workers make the chain’s espresso-based drinks, and a bar with stools in front of it so customers can watch the action, effectively creating a beverage theater. The windows in the drive-thru also show off the inner workings of the restaurant.
The concept restaurant features a window revealing a conveyer belt between the first and second drive-thru windows. But the belt is being scrapped from the final prototype, because it doesn’t quite provide the image of quality the company wants.
That is not the only element we noticed that will not make the final cut. An automated sauce station with several of the chain’s individual sauces, such as Ranch, barbecue and sweet-and-sour, along with standards like ketchup, has been scrapped after it was deemed gimmicky and unnecessary.
But above the apparently doomed sauce station is a video screen, featuring constant images of the chain’s sauces and dips that will remain. There is another wall-sized screen behind the ordering kiosks. The videos on the screen, meant to highlight the chain’s menu offerings, can be changed.
But the overall design integrates digital and technology throughout, from the connected kitchen to the delivery pickup area outside, to the slimmed-down kiosks where customers place their orders.
In a sign of the future, or even current, state of the fast-food business, the front counter has been reduced to a single window. To the left is a set of temperature-controlled order pickup lockers, so the locker for fries will be set at a temperature different from the chain’s McFlurry or iced coffee drinks.
“Restaurant Next”:
In my original post, I debuted @McDonalds new restaurant design. Here is a peek into the back of house:
1️⃣ Notice a new draft/tap dispensing system on the line + a Vita mixer 👀
2️⃣ Dual service counters: one to prepare drive-thru orders and one for the front… https://t.co/YkPa1jM4zUpic.twitter.com/qn2MQP0AZh
— McFranchisee (@McFranchisee) June 10, 2026
There is a similar set of lockers outside, in an enclosed area, that is designated for drivers from third-party delivery companies like DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub. Drivers punch in a code in the center of the lockers and access orders without crowding the inside of the restaurant and getting mixed in with regular customers. Such designated pickup lockers are already in test in other locations, including one on a wall outside the entrance to a location in Chicago.
But maybe the most notable elements of the prototype are in the kitchen.
For one thing, there is a station where a dedicated employee can hand-bread chicken, which we were also able to try during our visit to Chicago. The freezer featured glass walls, making products visible from the kitchen, though it’s not certain whether that makes the final cut.
But the equipment is all connected to an operating system that tells management when, say, the fryer oil needs changing or if one of the coolers needs repair. A screen at the entrance of the kitchen shows the equipment in a design that looks almost like an organizational chart.
McDonald’s newest business strategy, which the chain calls “McDonald’s Next,” prominently features technology as a focal point to make its restaurants more efficient. Connecting equipment is a good way to do that, giving management better insight into the operations of the kitchen.
The kitchen area is divided in two, with one side featuring the fry station and assembly line where the burgers are made. The other side features the chain’s beverages and desserts. Indeed, about 40% of the space is devoted to drinks and desserts, another sign of where McDonald’s and much of the suddenly drink-obsessed restaurant industry is headed. The beverage prep area is just behind the espresso theater.
Dividing the sides are two scales, one close to the drive-thru window at the back, the other close to the front counter, that are connected to point-of-scale screens. Those scales can determine the accuracy of an order by the weight of the bag, a device in test in a number of restaurants through the system.
The lobby area includes a play place, visible from the outside through red-tinted glass. And there are gold arches, or elements of gold arches, throughout the interior.
A patio out front features a roof designed to look like sesame seed-dotted French fries, so you either see the fries or the seeds, depending on how you look at it. But there are also seats, so customers on fair-weather days can enjoy their McFlurries outside.
It will take some time before the warehouse restaurant makes its way to street corners in urban London or suburban Des Moines. Regardless, the concept restaurant is a far cry from the boxes that now dominate the fast-food world.
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