upscale mcdonald's brings european style to nyc
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11.18.09 - abc news - by karen matthews, a.p.

i've always known that mcdonald's was the hippest, coolest, most in-touch fast food joint out there. back in the 90s, they pitted larry bird & michael jordan against each other in a game of horse, with the winner getting michael jordan's big mac & the loser having to watch them eat it. so cool & totally culturally relevant. over the years, they've had their hands in some of the best movie tie-ins ever. i'm telling you, if it wasn't for the mcdonald's toys based on the film, nobody would've gave a crap about finding nemo. for the record, i still have dory & she spits water & she rules. anyway, they've been damn good about keeping up with what's radical & tubular with the world's youth & pretty much every ad campaign they spit out gets the ol' "i'm lovin it!" treatment from consumers.

their latest move: according to an abc news article taken from the a.p., mcdonald's has finally decided to bring the same chic style they've been using in france & the u.k. to the united states. after introducing the "sleek" style to european mcdonald's a few years back, they've decided that americans in chelsea, the gayest (& by default chicest) neighborhood in nyc, are finally ready for a european-style mcdonald's, complete with "outlets for plugging in laptops" & "subdued lighting." it also means that customers at the locale can now say "bye bye hard plastic seats" & "hello upholstered vinyl chairs." it makes sense. the boys in chelsea love vinyl.

paul hendel, the owner of the chelsea franchise, had this puzzling comment on the new setup. "we're becoming a more relevant type of restaurant for the younger crowd. they don't feel rushed. they're reading the newspaper, relaxed." my two cents, paul: i hear you on them not being rushed, but if you think the younger crowd is hanging out reading the paper, you need to do a bit more research. the newspaper's been dead for years, dude. you're on the right track though. a large reason behind mcdonald's embracing the loungy, european-style setup is that they finally realized that in this post-9/11 world, people enjoy taking their time & doing something while they eat. asian mcdonald's have functioned as a hangout for teens for a while now, but their cultures are WAY more advanced than ours. it's good to see that we're finally catching up though. now if we can just get a mcdonald's at MOMA, we can catch up to france.