By Caitlin McPherson
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications
The McDonald’s restaurant opening at 10 a.m. Thursday in
Midway is a guinea-pig store, testing out a ‘boutique’ approach for the world’s
largest restaurant company, according to franchisee Joe Graviss.
Graviss said Midway is finally ready for a fast food outlet,
but this McDonald’s will be different than his eight others.
The restaurant has
only 54 seats for dining, about half of the number of seats at a typical
Graviss McDonald’s location.
“They tried it years ago.
They kind of got away from it,” Graviss said of the approach. “I asked
McDonald’s to come down three times to see if it made sense to put a restaurant
at this interchange. . . . Three times I brought them down here and three times they
said, ‘No, it’s not a viable market.
There’s not enough rooftops, not enough cars.’”
With the success of the Shell station and convenience store
in the Green Gables development, Graviss said he asked the company to take
another look. That, and perhaps a change in corporate management, changed McDonald’s mind, Graviss said.
Despite the small dining area, Graviss doesn’t expect
drive-through customers account for any greater percentage of sales than a
typical Graviss McDonald’s. He said his Nicholasville Road store gets 68 to 70
percents of its sales from drive-through.
Graviss’s ownership of the restaurant came as a surprise to
many people in Midway, partly because
Green Gables developer Dennis Anderson spoke only of dealing with McDonald’s,
not Graviss.
Graviss explained that McDonald’s had full control of the
construction because the store is a test store for future boutique
restaurants.
“McDonald’s wanted to keep control of all development cost,”
he said. “They know that I like to spruce things up, for lack of a better term,
so they wanted to control the spending and the cite and development cost 100
percent.”
Once McDonald’s achieved what they wanted, they handed
control over the Graviss, he said, allowing him to make minor changes such as
landscaping, locations of electrical outlets and access to USB portals. The restaurant
has wi-fi for Internet access.
The manager of the store will be familiar to some in Midway.
The manager of the Nicholasville Road store, Mary Husband, is coming home to
supervise a staff of 45, about 30 of whom are from the Midway area, Graviss said.
“She is actually one of our younger tenured managers,”
Graviss said. “We are really proud of
the fact that a lot of our team will be Midwegians.”
The golden arches aren’t too far from Husband’s front door
in the Northridge subdivision. She said
she hopes that her new job will give her a small role in helping the community.
“I think it will be
just as busy as Nicholasville Road was, because there were a lot of other
restaurants on Nicholasville that hurt us a little bit,” she said. “Here we
have the interstate and all of Midway, so once we get established I think we
can be right there with them.”
But is Midway ready for the arches to shine over
the city's established, historic dining options? The fine
dining options in Midway have made a name for the city. The Holly Hill Inn, the
Heirloom and other restaurants downtown are quite the opposite from
McDonald’s.
Graviss said
his new restaurant will bring more people into Midway, and boost sales for the
historic dining options and other downtown businesses.
One
thing is for sure: Midway’s new neighbor is ready to serve the community. The question is, is the community ready to
welcome it? The ribbon-cutting for the restaurant will be held at 9 a.m.
Thursday, with the first meals served at 10. On Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m, a meet-and-greet limited to employees and their
families will be held, to create a sense of community.
 |
| Left to right: Joe Graviss, Husband, Graviss McDonald's Restaurants Operations Director Jim Young and Area Director Joe Allison stand on store sign before it was placed. (Photo submitted by Graviss) |
3 comments:
Good luck Mcmidway
As a 10 year resident of Midway, I find your article amusing. First, Midway is primarily a tourist spot. The stores and restaurants downtown are geared toward non-residents. Getting a McDonald's is not a big deal. We don't eat there often, but we are far more likely to drop by McDonald's than deal with the overpriced (and not anything special) food labeled "fine dining". Been there, done that, not impressed (sorry Midway and Holly Hill). Like a lot of other families who live here and work in Lexington, Frankfort, Georgetown, or Versailles, we appreciate businesses for "the common folk". So will visitors who have spent money shopping and want an economical bite of food on the way home, or families with kids who want to eat something familiar. It is a very welcome addition to Midway!
Second day of operation, 10:28 a.m., unable to cook a hamburger because it is not 10:30 a.m. #mcdonalds #customerservicefail
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