LAS VEGAS January McDonald’s Corp. “showcase” venue on the legendary Strip here, opened last month with some high-tech Vegas-style touches for consumers and employees, an updated point-of-sale system, and advanced cooking equipment. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Announcing the new restaurant in classic Las Vegas fashion is a neon-lit golden-arches marquee with two hanging LED video display screens measuring 10 feet by 23 feet. In addition, four jumbo 9-foot-by-8-foot display screens compete for attention on the front of the restaurant. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Inside, a 12-screen “mediaring” and three other flat-screen displays share video content from the new McDonald’s Channel with the outdoor screens. Among other things, the McDonald’s Channel features three-to-five-minute vignettes of audience-appropriate content from partnering educational programming sources, including cable TV’s The Discovery Channel and Animal Planet. Retail product clips also are part of the entertainment. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
McDonald’s new 184-seat Las Vegas restaurant offers wireless Internet access for customers, and its sound system can deliver different content to different zones within the space, said Brian Unger, senior vice president of McDonald’s Western division. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Viva McDonald’s is adjacent to the Circus Circus hotel and casino and replaces a nearby 25-year-old unit, which closed just hours before the new location went live. Unger said McDonald’s worked with neighbor Boyd Gaming Corp. to relocate the new restaurant so Boyd could better execute its Echelon Place project. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Citing the difficult economic climate and strained capital markets, Boyd Gaming earlier this year said it would delay construction of Echelon, which is designed to include 5,000 lodging rooms and suites along with retail and entertainment facilities. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
The Oak Brook, Ill.-based quick-service chain has great plans for the new location. “We designed Viva McDonald’s to be the showcase of the Western division,” Unger said. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
McDonald’s Eastern U.S. division has the 1,000-seat Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum McDonald’s outlet while the chain’s central territory has the 300-seat 50th Anniversary McDonald’s in downtown Chicago. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Unger said the restaurant is intended to tap into the high-level of consumer traffic in Las Vegas and demonstrate his company’s ongoing 25-year commitment to the city and its visitors. While it features some firsts, such as the McDonald’s Channel component, its overall look and feel is reminiscent of the chain’s current “forever young arcade” design concept, “blown out to Las Vegas size,” he said. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
The restaurant’s name was inspired, in part, by “Viva Las Vegas,” the movie starring the late “King” of rock, Elvis Presley, who also garnered a hit with the title song from the soundtrack. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Among employee amenities at the new restaurant is a “McDonald’s Connect” digital education and training system station. Unger said the bilingual system is the “wave of the future” and pointed out that the training content can be downloaded, eliminating the need for distributing documents or CDs. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
The restaurant also is using the chain’s latest touchscreen point-of-sale system with a user interface incorporating “pictures instead of script,” Unger said. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Viva McDonald’s is open 24 hours and, at 8,600 square feet, is the brand’s largest restaurant in Nevada. It uses five counter registers versus the standard three, and has two all-electric kitchens using low-oil volume fryers for reduced operating costs and three-platen grills. Unger said having two kitchens lets the Las Vegas unit serve breakfast until 11 a.m. without hindering preparations for the lunch rush. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
“Being all electric allows us to introduce low-oil volume fryers and three-platen grills, which give us 50-percent more [cooking] capacity while being energy efficient,” he said. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Viva McDonald’s offers the Mc-Cafe line of espresso and iced coffee drinks. To meet the demand for those drinks and future McCafe offerings, such as smoothies, the Las Vegas restaurant has an employee called a “beverage specialist” who serves the counter and the drive-thru, Unger said. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Among the unique retail products being sold at the restaurant are yard-long, 42-ounce cups. —Viva McDonald’s, a new
Unger declined to discuss development costs. He reported the restaurant “was doing extremely well [in sales] out of the gate.” —Viva McDonald’s, a new