While the largest restaurant chains have spent the second half of the pandemic investing in next-gen restaurant design and pivoting to drive-thrus and pickup windows, they’re not the only ones. On this episode of Extra Serving, Andy Diamond — president of the Mesa, Ariz.-based, 14-unit, Cajun seafood casual dining restaurant — speaks about how even smaller chains are getting in on the restaurant redesign craze. Over the past year, Angry Crab Shack — normally an experiential in-person dining brand — pivoted to third-party delivery for the first time and began focusing on off-premise. The result? They’re also looking at shrinking footprints and new store layouts that emphasize customer speed and convenience, in addition to their traditional experiential in-store dining. “One thing this [pandemic] has shown is spacing is important in a restaurant it makes things more efficient you don’t have guests clustering,” Diamond said. “We’re now up to 20% to-go orders and I think to-go’s will still be 10-12% in the future, so more than double pre-pandemic levels.” Now Angry Crab Shack considers that shift in consumer needs when looking at expanding.” “So now when we look at new restaurant locations, we say, ‘okay, what are we doing to do about a to-go area?’ Whereas before we were not really thinking that.” – Source: NRN.