New McDonald's at America's Most Popular Museum Will Be Busiest in U.S. History
Washington's Air and Space Museum Ready for Summer Tourist Season with Faster Restaurant Service, Menu Variety and Value
PRNewswire-FirstCall
WASHINGTON
May 24, 2002
With the start of the busy summer tourist season, McDonald's opened a new flagship restaurant site at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, America's most popular museum. The 1,000-seat restaurant will deliver faster service, great menu variety and value for millions of visitors.
Better Variety: McDonald's at "The Wright Place" offers museum visitors a wide variety of menu items from the Golden Arches, Boston Market and Donatos Pizzeria.
More Convenient: The new restaurant will have the capacity to serve more than 15,000 people per day, whereas the restaurant could only serve 6,000. A well-known expert at running efficient high-volume restaurants, McDonald's created a gigantic kitchen -- the equivalent of four full-sized McDonald's restaurants -- as well as a Boston Market and a Donatos Pizzeria kitchen. The restaurant can handle three times the volume of the previous operator.
Better Value: McDonald's, Boston Market and Donatos will offer an affordable menu for families on the go. The average check for a family of four will be approximately 15 percent less than the previous food provider.
"The Smithsonian chose McDonald's to revitalize the National Air and Space Museum's restaurant for the nine million tourists who visit this Washington landmark each year," said Henry Gonzalez, president of McDonald's East Division. "Today, for the first time, the museum will easily accommodate groups of every size with faster service and greater food variety at affordable prices. We are honored to be at this treasured house of aviation history."
School and Large Tour Groups Easily Accommodated: In the past, school tours and other large tour groups had to literally leave the building to search for a restaurant. Now, teachers, students and other large tour groups can enjoy a great meal without long lines. McDonald's is known worldwide for our high quality food, speed of service and ability to efficiently handle high-volume restaurant locations. Visitors will have more time to enjoy exhibits and theater presentations at NASM.
McDonald's serves breakfast: This is the first time in the history of the NASM that breakfast will be available for visitors, starting at 7:30 a.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends. McDonald's will offer favorites, such as the Egg McMuffin, Sausage Egg McMuffin, Big Breakfast and three great breakfast Bagel sandwiches.
An in-demand brand, McDonald's completely redeveloped and redesigned the space to be much more customer friendly. "We were invited to come and redevelop this space because we know how to do it right, based on our experience in other unique locations," Gonzalez said.
Faster -- Streamlined Restaurant Experience: There will be 12 customer- friendly islands for visitors to place orders -- three times the former operator's number of order points. Customers can order from any of the three menus at the same time. After ordering and paying visitors proceed directly to a space-themed counter to pick up their meals. Major credit cards are accepted.
Menu: The menu will feature traditional world-renown McDonald's favorites, such as the Big Mac, Grilled Chicken Sandwich, Double Quarter Pounder and Filet-o-Fish, as well as rotisserie chicken entrees and carver sandwiches from Boston Market. Also available is Boston Market's Chicken Caesar salad, as well as a Caesar side salad without chicken. Donatos Pizzeria will offer two 7" pizza options -- cheese and pepperoni.
Other Menu Highlights:
McTreat Spot: There are two McTreat Spots at the restaurant, featuring premium dessert items such as ice cream sundaes, Triple-thick shakes, smoothies, double-twist ice cream cones, McFlurries and other dessert specialties.
Mezzanine Cafe: The mezzanine cafe features LavAzza Italian gourmet coffee, teas, pastries and a wide variety of fruit smoothies.
Fun and Futuristic Restaurant: McDonald's has mirrored the restaurant's space theme with 18 video screens showing clips from "Space Station 3D", a new IMAX movie that recently premiered in the museum's theater, and "Infinity Express: A 2020-Minute Tour of the Universe," the current attraction in the museum's Albert Einstein Planetarium. The monitors can broadcast live space launches or events. While enjoying a meal, visitors will learn about museum exhibits, IMAX shows and other information about the NASM. Also, the restaurant features a timeline of Air and Space Milestones, highlighting key historical events in aviation and space history -- from 1435 to 2002.
Other examples of high-volume sites: Museum of Science & Industry and Field Museum in Chicago; Disney Theme Parks in Orlando, FL and Anaheim, CA; and over 50 airports worldwide. Stadiums, tollways and zoos are other high- volume locations where McDonald's has successfully fulfilled the needs of customers.
McDonald's is the world's leading foodservice retailer with more than 30,000 restaurants serving 46 million customers each day in 121 countries. Approximately 80 percent of McDonald's restaurants worldwide are owned and operated by independent, local businessmen and women. Boston Market and Donatos Pizzeria are wholly owned subsidiaries of McDonald's Corporation (NYSE: MCD).
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SOURCE: McDonald's Corporation
Contact: Lisa Howard, McDonald's Corporation, +1-630-623-5044, or
Bob Palmer, +1-240-497-3617
Website: http://www.mcdonalds.com/