Pikesville McDonald's Goes All Starbucks On Us?? Click HERE to Bring Up Full Post

Dining@Large Blog, Baltimore Sun, November 19, 2008:

McDonald's seems to have turned into a -- gasp -- stylish coffee house with cozy nooks, custom furniture, limestone countertops, limited edition artwork, wi-fi and flat screen TVs. (OK, a coffee house wouldn't have flat screen TVs.) ...

Check out the pictures in the original.

For non-locals, the 500 block of Reisterstown Road in Pikesville is not where I would expect a McDonald's to "go Gucci" with a flat screen TV, dark paneling and comfy-butt couches. Pikesville is a diverse community; this part of Pikesville is maybe 3/4 mile north of the city line at Milford Mill Road. There are some wealthy families in Pikesville but for the most part this end of Pikesville/Milford Mill is pretty much middle class, with a fairly nearby Orthodox Jewish community that would not be particularly likely to patronize a non-kosher restaurant. It's not near a college or particularly near a morning transit node, though there's a Metro station maybe 1 mile away or less. There's a kosher bagel shop perhaps 3 blocks north of it, probably aiming at a different market segment, and to my knowledge no Starbucks or Caribou Coffee within 1 mile (though a struggling Seattle's Best is less than a mile away.)

I have eaten quite a few times in that McDonald's, back when I lived in NW Baltimore and would sneak a newspaper and a greasy meal on a Sunday during a nearby Jiffy Lube run or whatnot. Now it's McLatte? McSpresso? How about just McNuggets?


Longer portion of post goes here.