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Remove Bush On 11/2/2004
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McDiner to Open Wednesday!
McDonald's previews new diner concept in Owensboro
11/19/02
By Keith Lawrence
Messenger-Inquirer
Elvis was doing the "Jailhouse Rock" on the speaker system. And a small statue of Ronald McDonald welcomed visitors in the parking lot.
Owensboro's first "McDonald's with the Diner Inside," a slice of instant Americana, held its sneak preview Monday night at 4800 Frederica St.
And reviews were good.
"I'm pleasantly surprised," said City Commissioner Jim Wood as he studied a menu with his daughter, Elizabeth.
"It's really nice," said Esther Jansing, executive director of the Community Foundation, who was eating with her granddaughter, Hannah Rose Harpe, an eighth-grader at College View Middle School. "I'm having a chicken Caesar salad and she's having a triple-roast beef and bacon club sandwich. They didn't have these before."
Chef Andrew Selvaggio, McDonald's chief corporate chef since 1993, said the McDonald's Diner features 122 new items -- pancakes, French toast, waffles, meatloaf, roast turkey and even a $9.99 steak with onion rings.
But the 100 or so original McDonald's items -- Quarter Pounders, Egg McMuffins and the like -- are still on the menu, he said.
The Towne Square North restaurant, retrofitted to the diner concept, is the sixth in the chain. It opens to the public at 6 a.m. Wednesday.
The new Diner at 2730 W. Parrish Ave. will open at 6 a.m. Monday.
"The look is timeless," said Tom Ryan, McDonald's executive vice president for U.S. marketing and the company's chief concept officer. "There's a lot of tile, steel and glass bricks. It's art deco and contemporary at the same time."
People can sit in red-and-white booths with black tables and order their food on red telephones that hang on the wall. Or they can go to the counter and order it.
The drive-through window only handles the typical McDonald's food. But carryout parking is available for those who call ahead to order the diner food.
McDonald's opened its first Diner in Kokomo, Ind., about 20 months ago, Ryan said.
"It's still doing great business," he said. "So are the other four we've opened."
No timetable has been established for taking the concept nationally, Ryan said.
The Owensboro-Evansville-Henderson market -- each city will have two Diners -- was selected to test the concept for four reasons, he said.
"They're all company-owned stores," Ryan said. "We didn't have to involve franchisees. There's a great labor force here. There's lots of competition here. And the people here are very representative of the country as a whole."
This is at least the second time McDonald's has used Owensboro as a test market. In the summer of 1989, it began adding pizza ovens to the local restaurants to test that concept here.
Owensboro's four McDonald's and 10 in Evansville were among 240 nationwide that tested the pizzas. Although the pizzas, which had a sweeter than usual sauce, were popular in Owensboro, they failed to catch on around the country.
Ryan smiles at that memory. He worked for Pizza Hut back then and later spent 18 months in Lexington as senior vice president of business development at Long John Silver's.
The Diner, Ryan said, isn't aimed at aging baby boomers -- although they remain a major target audience.
"It's a place for family and friends to get together and eat at their own pace," he said.
Selvaggio said all the Diner food is prepared from scratch at each restaurant. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, he said, "We have eight turkey items on the menu every day, along with stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberries."
"You can eat here three times a week and not get bored," Ryan said.
There is a possibility, Ryan said, that all the McDonald's restaurants in Owensboro, Henderson and Evansville will be converted to the diner concept in a few months.
"It's a retrofit," he said. "There's no new construction. The building has the same square footage and it still seats 158."
But employment grows by roughly 50 percent at each of the Diners -- 100 employees instead of 65.
Music plays continually in the background -- a mixture of hits from the 1950s through the 1990s.
"It starts out soft at breakfast," Selvaggio said. "But the tempo picks up as the day goes on."
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I think these McDiner's will be a hit ! I plan on going sometime this week, not on Wednesday though. I bet they'll be packed!
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