McDonald's experiments with a gourmet menu By Maureen Fitzgerald Inquirer Suburban Staff
Mark Heinz was 6 years old in 1971 when his dad opened the McDonald's on Route 70 in Marlton, selling 25-cent burgers and catching the wave of the fast-food revolution.
After buying the franchise from his father, Heinz renovated the store and its menu, hoping to position himself at the crest of another wave: McDonald's gone gourmet.
Yesterday, Heinz launched the Mid-Atlantic's first Bistro Gourmet McDonald's - the most ambitious attempt thus far to move the burger-and-fries giant beyond fast food to a more upscale fare. Similar stores are planned in Berwyn, as well as in Cape May Court House, N.J., and Glasgow, Del.
With its granite counters, pendant lighting and classical music, the Marlton Bistro offers a made-to-order menu including grilled vegetable panini, Bucks County Coffee espresso and Hershey's hand-dipped ice cream - along with McDonald's traditional fare.
The bistros are an effort to compete with "fast-casual" restaurants, such as Panera Bread and Cosi, which have been growing 25 percent a year since 1999, compared with a 2 percent to 3 percent growth for fast food, according to Technomic Consultants, a food-service market research firm in Chicago.
Technomic studies show that most customers migrating to fast-casual restaurants are coming from fast-food outlets, said David Yanda, a senior analyst with Technomic.
"Baby boomers grew up with fast food, but fast food has not grown up with baby boomers," Yanda said.
The upscale trend is not unique to McDonald's, the world's largest fast-food company. Jack-in-the-Box and Arby's recently announced decor and menu improvements. And Burger King last year launched a fire-grilled chicken baguette and this year plans to roll out a new salad line.
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