Perkins & Marie Callender’s has been updating its locations over the past four years. CEO Jeff Warne said that even a clean, polished restaurant can develop a negative perception if it looks dated.

By the end of 2015, Memphis, Tenn.-based Perkins had remodeled nearly half of its 132 company-owned locations and refreshed about 40 of its 271 franchised units. In February, Perkins reported that same-store sales in 2015 rose 4.5 percent, and transactions increased 3 percent, with remodeled locations leading the way.

Warne said Perkins began sprucing up restaurants in earnest in 2013 and 2014, and has a goal of remodeling the entire system by 2018. The cost of the more extensive remodel, with new signage and a revamped bakery and dining room, costs about $250,000. A less pronounced remodel costs about $200,000.

Some remodeling programs are aimed at attracting the lucrative Millennial market, such as Dallas-based TGI Fridays’ renovation of a 10,000-square-foot restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas, that reopened in March.

Blond woods and casual seating areas have been added to accommodate TGI Fridays customers in the unit’s expanded dayparts. The restaurant has about 280 seats total.

Sandwiches, snacks (like jalapeño ranch gourmet popcorn) and sweets are offered for the Fridays Offsite and coffee/juice bar customers.

In quick service, Dublin, Ohio-based Wendy’s Co. last year remodeled 450 restaurants and built 70 new units, bringing the total of its “Image Activation” new design to about 22 percent of the North American system. That should reach 60 percent in 2020, the company said, adding that the brand saw an increase in same-store sales of 4.8 percent at North American locations in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 3, 2015.

Todd Penegor, The Wendy’s Co. chief financial officer, said in an analyst call in November that average unit volumes were growing faster than same-store sales growth. 

“We feel good that we continue to see the benefits of not only nice initial lifts from Image Activation, but that continued performance that we have sustainable long-term lifts for our ultramodern standard designs of 10 percent-plus moving forward,” Penegor said. “So that is encouraging.”

The Wendy's prototype location also is testing the chain’s breakfast platform and Redhead Roasters line of premium coffee.

Los Angeles-based California Pizza Kitchen Inc. accelerated its remodeling program last year, with the goal of having half of its 192 company-owned U.S. locations renovated by the end of 2015.

California Pizza Kitchen's remodeling was part of what the company called its "Next Chapter."

Some remodels are focused on aligning the look to fit the mid-decade vision of the brands, as in the case of Coppell, Texas-based Cicis Pizza.

Cicis earlier this year unveiled a new brand image in Frisco, Texas, that culminates the past year of reassessing where the 446-unit buffet brand should be headed, CEO Darin Harris said.

“The entire design is totally different and matches the brand vision,” Harris said. “Our guests want to have an environment that has color, warmth and fun.”

Cicis' remodeled dining room now includes regular and bar-height seating with dividers.

Cicis has added electronic monitors that time how long pizzas have on the buffet line, flash yellow when they need to be removed or replaced and help the brand lower food costs.