What The Hell Happened to Chicken Out?

During an action-packed Memorial Day weekend featuring fishing, grill shopping and assembly, an Aunt meeting her first niece and Bubble Bobble Plus for Wii, we decided to order some dinner from the delicious Chicken Out.  I've been a regular supporter of Chicken Out over the years and enjoy the quality food and their ever-changing menu options (the new Quesadillas are money).  This time around as I picked up the food for carry-out and grabbed a new menu, I immediately noticed a drastic change in branding.  

The old standard Chicken Out branding (which I have always thought was classy and well designed) shown here...

was replaced with this god-awful minimalistic approach...

I don't know what happened here.  Did Chicken Out cut back on expenses and fire their graphic designer?  Do they think this new design is simpler and emphasises healthier options?  I can't figure it out.  It looks like the owner's kid got a hold of Microsoft Publisher and made their own version of the menu.  There are absolutely no images or graphics that convey how the food looks.  Everything is in one type face (Arial?) with just green and white color throughout.  

Now this probably only irritates me because I am a graphic artist at heart, but I thought I would share the new look of Chicken Out.  Interestingly, Chicken Out's website still has the old (better) look and feel.  So hopefully this is not a trend and simply a mistake, although inside the restaurant, the big menu on the wall did have the same boring green and white style.  Pretty scary that this design would have been approved by any non-blind executive.