Burger King spent a year building something that will never serve a single customer: a full-scale prototype restaurant inside a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Miami.
The Royal Innovation Center—the RIC—isn't next to corporate headquarters. That's intentional. Marc Aust, VP of Operations Services at Burger King, explained at RestaurantSpaces why the distance matters: "The culture at our head office just wasn't conducive to fast iteration, breaking things, challenging the status quo."
The RIC houses a complete, operational Burger King—parking lot, dual-lane drive-thru, full kitchen, dining room. It's life-sized, fully functional, and exists solely to test, break, and rebuild before spending real money in the real world.
Aust showed a rendering of a beautiful sizzle remodel design. Kiosks on the right. Waiting bench on the left. Pickup counter up front designed for a team member to stand and greet guests.
The problem: that counter required dedicated labor franchisees couldn't always staff. The design looked great on paper but fell apart operationally.
At the RIC, they walked the space and found the fix: remove the offset counter, bring it back in line with the expo area. Now the existing team member behind the transparent wall can greet guests while still doing their actual job.
"In a pre-Royal Innovation Center world, this would have taken us lots of actual restaurants to figure out, spending lots of actual money to get those sidelines wrong," Aust said. "And those assets are going to be there for 10-plus years."
Burger King uses contact toasters—the kind that squeeze buns between hot plates. Springs loosen, buns burn or fall through untoasted. Team members hate them. Guests get inconsistent product.
The RIC let Burger King test every major toaster supplier, narrow it down to radiant toasters, and work with manufacturers to customize equipment for their needs. Timeline: nine months. The old way would have taken two years.
"Every single thing we learn at the restaurant is going to upset our guests, upset our team members, and cost us a lot of money," Aust explained. "Every single thing we can learn in our lab is virtually free."
The space is designed for co-creation: franchisees, vendors, crew members, and corporate teams working side by side. But there's one non-negotiable requirement.
"We ask that folks leave their titles at the door," Aust said. "Many of the best ideas come from the folks that are closest to the business, on the front lines. If they see a bunch of fancy titles, they shut down."
When visitors arrive at the RIC for the first time, they get a briefing on expectations: keep an open mind, be egalitarian, be inclusive, and most importantly, challenge the status quo.
It's not symbolic. When developing the new radiant toaster, equipment suppliers worked directly in the space customizing their products to Burger King's workflow. When testing drive-thru configurations, teams literally drove golf carts through different lane setups to understand traffic flow. No one's title mattered—only whether the idea worked.
"The space has to belong to everyone," Aust said. "Because when everyone comes together and leaves their titles at the door, that's where we find the most powerful breakthrough ideas."
Aust closed with lessons that don't require a big investment:
1. Find your sandbox. Commandeer a conference room. Pick a corner of an operating restaurant. What matters is the mindset—a space where titles disappear and people envision the future together.
2. Prototype and iterate often. Take your time in early stages. Every lesson in the lab is free. Every lesson in the field costs money and frustrates guests.
3. Involve all stakeholders. Bring in franchisees, vendors, crew members—everyone who'll work with or pay for what you're building.
4. Design for flexibility. Build spaces that adjust to changing needs. Design solutions that work today and 30 years from now.
5. Make innovation cultural. It's not just an innovation team's job. When everyone comes together, breakthrough ideas happen.
The RIC represents a massive upfront investment. But Burger King isn't measuring success by what it cost to build—they're measuring it by what they're not spending in the field.
No more rolling out beautiful designs that fall apart operationally. No more two-year equipment development cycles. No more learning expensive lessons in front of paying customers.
"We're not just keeping pace with our guests," Aust said. "We're trying to set the pace for the industry and stay a step ahead."
For a 60-year-old brand trying to envision the next 60 years, that means one thing: build the future inside a warehouse, break it until it's bulletproof, then bet millions on what's left standing.
Watch his full talk below 👇