{"id":2346,"date":"2007-08-06T18:03:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-07T01:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2346"},"modified":"2007-08-06T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-07T01:03:00","slug":"just-luvin-those-golden-arches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2346","title":{"rendered":"Just Luvin\u2019 Those Golden Arches"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2007\/HEALTH\/diet.fitness\/08\/06\/mcdonalds.preschoolers.ap\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">a CNN report<\/a>, 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. <\/p>\n<p>But I wonder&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d love to see the following comparisons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An <a href=\"http:\/\/www.in-n-out.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">In-N-Out Burger<\/a> in plain wrap vs. a McDonalds burger\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.straightdope.com\/mailbag\/mdrpepper.html\" target=\"_blank\">Carbonated prune juice<\/a> in a McDonalds cup vs. plain wrap\n<li>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.burgerking.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Burger King<\/a> burger in McDs packaging vs a McDs burger in Burger King wrapping&#8230; with <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Burger_King\" target=\"_blank\">the Burger King<\/a> looking over your shoulder, of course.<\/ul>\n<p>You get the idea. Luckily, long ago I convinced my daughter the tastelessness of McDs, and that she should love <a href=\"http:\/\/www.in-n-out.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">In-N-Out<\/a> (or for your southerners, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.steaknshake.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Steak \u2018n Shake<\/a>). She also eschews <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dennys.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dennys<\/a> and other purveyors of mass blandness. <\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB118641935147289388.html?mod=googlenews_wsj\" target=\"_blank\">other McD\u2019s news<\/a>, McD\u2019s is selling <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bostonmarket.com\/home\" target=\"_blank\">Boston Market<\/a> to Sun Capital. Most people don\u2019t realize it, but McD\u2019s has owned Boston Market since 2000. McD\u2019s at one time also owned <a href=\"http:\/\/www.chipotle.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Chipolte Mexican Grill<\/a>, but sold <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/bwdaily\/dnflash\/sep2005\/nf20050923_1613_db016.htm\" target=\"_blank\">at least part of it in 2005-2006<\/a>. Apparently, McDonalds may still own a majority interest in the Chipolte parent company, although <a href=\"http:\/\/www.costar.com\/News\/Article.aspx?id=A5C19125B2CD60A1C4AF2160D0E00B02\" target=\"_blank\">some articles imply otherwise<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of burgers, a post by <a href=\"http:\/\/zarchasmpgmr.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">zarchasmpgmr<\/a> reminded me of one of my favorite burger joints, Flakey Jakes, which went <a href=\"http:\/\/findarticles.com\/p\/articles\/mi_m3190\/is_n5_v26\/ai_11816834\" target=\"_blank\">out of business in 1992<\/a>.  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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6_lvDLeTae8\" target=\"_blank\">Pico and Sepulveda<\/a>)&#8230; although there may still be <a href=\"http:\/\/www.calendarlive.com\/dining\/75414,0,6748025.venue\" target=\"_blank\">an Anaheim location<\/a>.  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fuddruckers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Fuddruckers<\/a> was never as good.<\/p>\n<p>And speaking of dying (or dead) LA restaurants (and I know you were), Mark Evanier (<a href=\"http:\/\/mark_evanier.livejournal.com\/\" class=\"lj-user\">mark_evanier<\/a>) has an interesting article on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsfromme.com\/archives\/2007_08_05.html#013804\" target=\"_blank\">the apparent death of Loves BBQ<\/a>. I remember a number of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovesbbq.com\/main.html\" target=\"_blank\">Loves<\/a> locations, including one across the street from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.panns.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Panns<\/a> in Westchester, and one out in Woodland Hills&#8230; neither of which exist anymore. In fact, the only existing Loves BBQ may be in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lovesbbq.com\/location.html\" target=\"_blank\">Jakarta Indonesia<\/a>. They are a style of western BBQ you don\u2019t see that often anymore (and don\u2019t get me started on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tonyromas.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Tony Romas<\/a>, bleh!). Give me <a href=\"http:\/\/www.arthurbryantsbbq.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Arthur Bryants<\/a> any day. And a PS to the celiacs out there: over the weekend, we learned that almost nothing at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.famousdaves.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Famous Daves<\/a> is gluten-free. Although <a href=\"http:\/\/www.famousbbq.com\/index.html#Anchor-RICH-49575\" target=\"_blank\">two of their sauces are safe<\/a> (Mustard and Texas Pit), the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.famousbbq.com\/nutritionalinfo.html\" target=\"_blank\">natural flavors<\/a>\u201d in the rubs they use contain gluten.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230; I\u2019d love to see the following <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/?p=2346\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,1],"tags":[73],"class_list":["post-2346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food","category-lj-xfer","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cahighways.org\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}