According to a CNN report, kids thing anything tastes better if it comes in McDonalds packaging. Even carrots, milk and apple juice taste better to preschoolers when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging. The argument, of course, is that this is the power of advertising.
But I wonder…
I’d love to see the following comparisons:
- An In-N-Out Burger in plain wrap vs. a McDonalds burger
- Carbonated prune juice in a McDonalds cup vs. plain wrap
- A Burger King burger in McDs packaging vs a McDs burger in Burger King wrapping… with the Burger King looking over your shoulder, of course.
You get the idea. Luckily, long ago I convinced my daughter the tastelessness of McDs, and that she should love In-N-Out (or for your southerners, Steak ‘n Shake). She also eschews Dennys and other purveyors of mass blandness.
In other McD’s news, McD’s is selling Boston Market to Sun Capital. Most people don’t realize it, but McD’s has owned Boston Market since 2000. McD’s at one time also owned Chipolte Mexican Grill, but sold at least part of it in 2005-2006. Apparently, McDonalds may still own a majority interest in the Chipolte parent company, although some articles imply otherwise.
Speaking of burgers, a post by zarchasmpgmr reminded me of one of my favorite burger joints, Flakey Jakes, which went out of business in 1992. When I worked at SDC, we used to eat at the West LA location all the time (I believe they were at either Olympic and Sepulveda or Pico and Sepulveda)… although there may still be an Anaheim location. Fuddruckers was never as good.
And speaking of dying (or dead) LA restaurants (and I know you were), Mark Evanier (mark_evanier) has an interesting article on the apparent death of Loves BBQ. I remember a number of Loves locations, including one across the street from Panns in Westchester, and one out in Woodland Hills… neither of which exist anymore. In fact, the only existing Loves BBQ may be in Jakarta Indonesia. They are a style of western BBQ you don’t see that often anymore (and don’t get me started on Tony Romas, bleh!). Give me Arthur Bryants any day. And a PS to the celiacs out there: over the weekend, we learned that almost nothing at Famous Daves is gluten-free. Although two of their sauces are safe (Mustard and Texas Pit), the “natural flavors” in the rubs they use contain gluten.
