The signs in front and back of the newly built restaurant in the Packwood Creek shopping center off Mooney Boulevard in Visalia make it clear this building is part of the famous chain, but it’s the look of the building that may throw off customers and passers by.

That’s because the exterior doesn’t have the shack-in-the-wilds look — as if the building were somehow transported from the Australian Outback — of most Outback Steakhouses, including the one in Fresno.

Instead, the Visalia Outback has more of an urban design, with a squared-off look that incorporates both white stones and brick facades on different parts of the building.

It even has a patio area still under construction that the owners plan to open after the weather gets warmer.

Inside, the look is even more urban-chic, forgoing the “safari” look that has been a staple of the chain, said Josh Kern, chief marketing officer for San Diego-based T-Bird Restaurant Group, which owns or manages all 62 Outbacks in California.

And plans are for the look of the Visalia restaurant to be how all new Outback Steakhouses will look in the future.

“When I first saw it, it was breathtaking to me to see that kind of look at an Outback restaurant,” said Christopher Espinoza, who left his 15-year job as a managing partner at the Victorville Outback to take the same position at the new Visalia restaurant.

“In casual dining, we’re just trying to stay relevant. One area you can address is the exterior of your concept,” he said. “We’re trying to show consumers there is a change in Outback, and it’s not the typical Outback that you’re used to.”

The Florida-based chain has been renovating its restaurants for years, but its newer restaurants are shying away from the old “Crocodile Dundee” look.

“When Outback was born, that theme was the rage,” Kern said.

He noted that the chain’s parent company, Bloomin’ Brands, Inc., has opened two of the new-style Outbacks in East Coast cities over the past 16 months, and the Visalia building is the first with the new style to open in California.

The building is on the site of the former Mimi’s Café, which T-Bird Restaurant Group initially considered renovating but instead decided to tear down and start from scratch

“It follows the general restaurant trend of keeping up with today’s customers. For many years, restaurants stayed inside the four walls,” focusing on maintaining or improving food, service quality to attract new customers but not altering their looks, Kern explained.

Plans are underway to remodel the Long Beach Outback to have a similar, more contemporary look and to add a patio and fire pit there, while a new restaurant similar to the Visalia one will be built in Torrance.

“Our new and remodeled restaurants feature an updated look and feel of modern-day Australia,” states a an email from Elizabeth Watts, a spokeswoman for Bloomin’ Brands, who declined to provide anyone from the company to speak further about the chain’s new look.

Standing out in the dining business is particularly important these days, as the restaurant industry as a whole still is recovering from the recent recession and other factors still drawing customers away.

“Certainly, there has been pressure on casual dining,” which includes a “sea of sameness” among some chains, people still not being able to afford to eat out, people not having time to go to sit-down restaurants, more competition from grocery stores offering cooked meals and services delivering ready-to-make meals with all the ingredients portioned out and people being “distracted” by the recent presidential election, election, Kern said.

“We’re certainly having some traffic declines,” said Kern, but he added that California restaurant chains generally are doing better than chains in other parts of the country.

Part of the reason is there still are several parts of the state that are growing and recovering well from the recession, he said.
In fact, he said T-Bird officials picked Visalia as the locale to build their first new Outback in seven years because of projected population growth and the general financial stability or residents there, Kern said.

“You’ve got a town that’s booming,” and a lot of retail activity that includes big box stores and restaurants along Mooney Boulevard, Espinoza said.