KFC Unveils 'Open House' Prototype in McKinney, Texas as Brand Overhaul Moves Beyond Boneless Chicken Push

KFC has added a physical centerpiece to its brand overhaul: a prototype restaurant called Open House, expected to open in McKinney, Texas, in late summer.

KFC President Catherine Tan-Gillespie told Restaurant Business that the location will test "the reinvention of product, promotion and place" — table service, drive-thru, and takeout under one roof, wrapped in what she described as an open-concept design meant to "reinterpret the brand's heritage with modern energy."

McKinney sits near Plano, Texas, where parent company Yum! Brands has its headquarters, according to Restaurant Business. Running the prototype that close to leadership is a controlled environment, not a stress test in a competitive urban market.

The prototype layers on the physical format question: can KFC redesign the dining room experience itself, not just the menu? Tan-Gillespie told Restaurant Business the goal is to "jolt the system and jump forward a decade," framing it as a Colonel Sanders legacy exercise: "What would the reinvention of KFC look like if the Colonel was here today?"

The sauce lineup is another new detail. KFC announced more than 20 new dipping sauces, ranging from Chimichurri Ranch to Hot Honey Habanero. These pair with the expanding boneless portfolio and are built to anchor the Saucy! sub-brand, which launched in Orlando in 2024 and has since grown to 10 Florida locations, with Texas expansion announced earlier this year, according to the NY Post.

A fair concern: this is a brand that has been announcing reinventions for years while U.S. same-store sales kept falling. The Saucy! concept is now in its second year and still confined to Florida, with a Texas expansion that has been "announced" but not yet delivered at scale. Kwench, the drink initiative featuring Boba Refreshers and Iced Coffees, has launched in some international markets but has NOT arrived in the U.S. yet, according to the NY Post. For customers in most American cities, the overhaul is still mostly a press release.

How many "next-generation" KFC locations will actually get built, and over what timeline? The chain has not publicly committed to a national rollout schedule for Open House. One prototype near company leadership is a proof of concept, not a turnaround.

A prototype has to start somewhere, and Tan-Gillespie's framing — testing near headquarters so Yum! leadership can evaluate it directly — is standard practice for a system with thousands of franchised locations. Franchisees don't retrofit restaurants on the basis of a press release; they need a working model they can visit, examine, and pressure-test before committing capital. If Open House demonstrates improved unit economics or customer traffic, the franchisee buy-in conversation becomes much easier.

The Saucy! expansion to Texas, even if slower than initially signaled, shows the company is willing to let concepts prove themselves in one market before scaling. That's more disciplined than the industry norm of aggressive premature rollouts that collapse.

Beyond "open concept" and "modern energy," specific design details are sparse in available reporting. The NY Post describes the environment as designed for "hospitality, not just efficiency" and built to "adapt throughout the day to meet different occasions" — language that suggests daypart flexibility rather than a single-use fast-food format.

Whether that translates to longer customer dwell time, higher average ticket, or just a nicer-looking KFC is something the McKinney location will have to demonstrate.

KFC has given no public timeline for deciding whether Open House becomes a template for new builds or remodels across its U.S. system. Yum! Brands' next earnings call is the most likely venue where that question gets a concrete answer, or gets deferred again.