You can still get a deep-fried apple pie in Downey. The lone exceptions are the apple pies McDonald's began baking their apple pies in 1992, instead of deep frying them. Today, the menu is line with other McDonald's. It was the last remaining independent McDonald's in the chain. The restaurant was in danger of shutting down for many years, until Kroc acquired it in 1990. McDonald's restaurants everywhere adopted the Big Mac in the late 1960s the Downey franchise did not, and sales flagged as a result. McDonald's adopted the golden arches the Downey franchise did not have to. It was franchised through an original agreement with the McDonald brothers, meaning that it didn't have to keep up with the corporation's modernization requirements. It was able to maintain its original look and feel because it wasn't licensed through Ray Kroc, who purchased the McDonald's franchise in 1961. At the original walk-up hamburger stand in San Bernardino, only the original sign remains.įor years, this location was a bit of a loose cannon. The Downey restaurant, then, is the fourth oldest McDonald's but remains the oldest still standing today. It was the third restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, who founded the chain in 1948. in Downey, was opened in 1953 by Roger Williams and Bud Landon. This McDonald's, on the corner of Lakewood Blvd. And there's a fat little moon-faced chef mascot parading around on top of the sign (his name is Speedee, if you were wondering). The fonts are different the sign features one massive yellow parabola coming out of the ground instead of Stanley Clark Meston's iconic "Golden Arches." There's no mansard roof. You might not even recognize it as a McDonald's while driving by - it looks like your archetypal California roadside burger shack, but the look and feel of the modern McDonald's, as perfected by Ray Kroc, somehow didn't reach this particular franchise. The oldest existing McDonald's restaurant on earth is in a town called Downey, about a 15-minute drive southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.
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