September 25th, 2007 at 9:42 am
A McDonald’s restaurant looking like a Starbucks. Yes, that’s how it looked like when we stopped to grab a bite at a McDonald’s in Woodmere, Ohio on the weekend.
We were really oohing and aahing at how nice and luxurious looking it was. The building had a modern architecture with strategically placed plants, the floors were marble like replicas and it felt like we were in an expensive restaurant. The whole restaurant had a music theme and the walls had paintings and photos of musical instruments and jazz greats. There was even wireless internet (Wifi) available for all customers. Gone were the cheap looking white/ tan fast food tables normally expected in a McDonald’s restaurant and in place of it were comfortable teak looking tables and chairs. It was also sparklingly clean unlike some restaurants I’ve been to.
I’ve yet to come across a McDonald’s of this nature but there’s always a first for everything. I am just wondering whether McDonald’s is revamping their business strategy to compete with the likes of ritzy and trendy looking cafes like Starbucks or is it the fact that it’s located in an upmarket area, with an upper class clientèle (especially with the Eton mall being just down the road from it). Whatever it was, we were loving it! Hope to see more of these McDonald’s restaurants in the future.
7 Responses to “A Classy McDonald’s”
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Lee said: @ 11:38 am
September 25th, 2007
It appears that McDonalds is revamping itself all over the place. I wrote a post about my own similar experience last month:
http://littlenuances.blogspot......nalds.html
I like what I see from the new style. Feels much more inviting to me as an adult.
Lee
ANO said: @ 11:41 am
September 25th, 2007
I’ll have to keep an eye on the McD’s around here to see if they upgrade!
CatherineL said: @ 5:58 pm
September 25th, 2007
Sounds great Mel. But seriously - you have better McDonalds restaurants in the US to begin with than we have here in the UK. Here, we don’t get free drinks refills, and we don’t even get to help ourselves to ketchup etc - we have to ask at the counter!
The Foo said: @ 6:05 pm
September 25th, 2007
@ Catherine
funny you mentioned that, I know exactly what you mean as I schooled in United Kingdom for a number of years from high school to University. Yes, totally different — everything here is supersized and overboard. I do like the free refills though — not sure why they don’t do that there. Personally, I thought Burger Kings was better there than McDonald’s (it’s the opposite for me here).
The Foo said: @ 6:20 pm
September 25th, 2007
@ Lee
Nice post you had there about McD, thanks for the link. You are right when you said that you don’t see Ronald McDonalds likeness anymore (never would have thought that until you said it) and the colors aren’t that the kid like yellow and red too. The menu is definitely more adult like. They are definitely wanting to grab some of those Starbucks clientele and make going to McDees more hip and trendy rather than just a place to bring your kids.
@ANO
You’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how classy a McDee restaurant can be!
amcgowan said: @ 8:51 pm
September 25th, 2007
My husband and I came across a mcdonalds like this when we were in Virginia and we joked that it was the McDonald’s for adults. Normally we get our food on the road to go when we stop at mcdonald’s because we don’t have our kids with us and we do not want to deal with noisy kids playing on mcdonald’s toys or screaming to go play on them. But this mcdonald’s was cool cause no noisy kids. Nice music playing and a gourmet cofee and expressos. I loved it.
Zippy, Sadie and Speedy said: @ 1:01 am
September 26th, 2007
Great, McDogdoos can update their restaurants (and I use that term loosely) all they want, their food still sucks.