Hadley Malcolm

USA TODAY

Next time you're looking to eat a nice dinner out, Taco Bell is hoping its burritos will be top of mind.

That's the idea behind four new store design concepts the Mexican fast-food chain will begin testing this summer. Sleek, modern seating, exposed wooden beams and trendy light fixtures will replace the fluorescent lighting and neon purple glow that has long been associated with the chain.

It's an uncharacteristic case of a fast food restaurant asking people to slow down. But it could be necessary if Taco Bell is going to increase its evening sales — and face off against more upscale chains like Chipotle.

Taco Bell's mainstay is lunchtime. It went on to create a successful breakfast business. But dinnertime remains elusive, and renovating to embrace it represents a lucrative opportunity to expand sales.

"We hope that we see a renewed interest in actually using it as a place to go out to dinner vs. picking up convenience and food to go home," says Deborah Brand, vice president of development and design at Taco Bell.

The timing is right. The dining-in trend has been hurting chains like Taco Bell.

Industrywide, lunch and dinner traffic has fallen for the past three years, according to data from NPD Group. Instead, customers are choosing to spend more dining dollars on breakfast and snacks away from home. Fast-casual restaurants that have built their reputation on breezy layouts and fresh food are also putting major pressure on older, more established chains.

Taco Bell has seen most of its business come from drive-thru orders — and that's something it wants to change.

In a bid to get customers out of their cars, Taco Bell's store designs emphasize group seating — tables are no longer bolted to the floor and there's more family-style seating. Initially, eight stores will feature the new designs — four current stores will debut the new designs in Orange County, Calif., this summer with four new stores opening later in the year — with the goal of eventually rolling them out to every store. Taco Bell has more than 7,250 restaurants around the world.

The company has been on an expansion tear, with plans to open at least 300 new stores this year and 2,000 internationally by 2022. One of the motivations behind the new designs is the ability to customize stores by location, to make them align more with local communities.

For example, one test store in California will get a large patio and cushioned furniture for the option to dine "al fresco," Brand says. The restaurants are also more environmentally-friendly, using LED lights, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems, local reclaimed wood in the California locations and solar panels.

The upscale look is a departure from the traditional, bare bones fast food experience, which has always emphasized convenience and quick service over ambiance. The revamps come as Taco Bell has steadily grown sales for the past eight quarters, helped in part from the launch of its breakfast menu in 2014.

The brand could stand to gain even more dining customers, says Wally Krantz, executive creative director at Landor, a brand consulting and design firm.

"It’s a lot more inviting," he says. "Those kinds of details are trying to halo into, 'our beef is good, our vegetables are fresh.'"

The redesigns will have a bigger impact if Taco Bell can simultaneously convince diners that its food is as authentic and modern as its interiors, Krantz says. Two restaurants that opened last year are already on their way to doing this. Taco Bell's "cantina" locations in San Francisco and Chicago boast an open kitchen layout, more shareable, tapas-style menu items such as nachos and even serve alcohol.

Though Brand says Taco Bell doesn't have plans to redo the menus at other locations, the "cantina" concept will be expanded.

Follow Hadley Malcolm on Twitter @hadleypdxdc.