McDonald’s Cooks Up Old Idea--a Diner

McDonald’s Corp., casting an eye toward market opportunities in “small-town U.S.A.,” is testing a radically new restaurant concept in Hartsville, Tenn.: the diner.

The Golden Arch Cafe, located on Highway 25 near Main Street in Hartsville, offers none of McDonald’s traditional fast-food fare.

“It’s not called McDonald’s, and we’re not selling McDonald’s items because it isn’t a McDonald’s,” said McDonald’s vice president John Charlesworth, in charge of the Nashville region.

“This is an entirely different approach. It’s another twist to looking at the food service business.”

The cafe has a much smaller kitchen than a regular McDonald’s and serves home-style meat-and-vegetable type meals, such as a Salisbury steak platter.

Also on the menu are rib-eye steaks and catfish dinners. Prices range from $1.09 to about $6. A hamburger can be had, but not one like at regular McDonald’s.

Ironically, it was the proliferation of such fast-food chains as McDonald’s that accelerated the demise of the diner, once an American culinary institution.

With their gleaming chrome surfaces and Formica countertops, they became the mainstay of small-town dining out through the 1950s. During the 1980s a wave of trendy ‘50s nostalgia brought diners back, but with 1980s prices.

“The locals love it,” said Bonnye Beeler, executive director of Hartsville’s Chamber of Commerce. “We’ve got people coming from all over” to dine at the new eatery.

“They serve plate lunches, which for McDonald’s is a big thing,” Beeler said. “They’re served on real plates.”

At the Golden Arch Cafe, waitresses dish up the food, but customers order at a counter. Beeler said grilled chicken sandwiches, fried chicken and various desserts have been among the favorites since the cafe opened Aug. 20.

McDonald’s built the cafe in Hartsville with the 1950s in mind. Charlesworth said the red, white and black restaurant has 55 seats, is heavy on chrome and has a jukebox that plays ‘50s and ‘60s tunes. The nearest bona fide McDonald’s is 20 miles away in Lebanon, Tenn.

According to Charlesworth, the Golden Arch Cafe is a one-store test that does not represent a shift in McDonald’s fast-food focus. “At this point there are no plans to expand.”

Instead, the Oak Brook, Ill.-based corporation just wants to see if it can do business in a small town and still make money. A town like Hartsville could not support a regular McDonald’s, which would cost too much to build relative to the money it would bring in, Charlesworth said.

The investment required for the cafe is paltry compared with that needed to introduce a new product at regular restaurants, he said. Early discussions on the Golden Arch Cafe took place in late 1988. The company decided about a year ago to go ahead with the test.

The broader scope of the menu compared to a regular McDonald’s is intended to take into account the potential for frequent visits. Charlesworth said there are about a dozen other restaurants in Hartsville.

McDonald’s operates about 11,300 restaurants worldwide.