The McDonald’s brand — with its distinctive color scheme, yellow arches, and the use of “Mc” before just about anything it offers — is one of the world’s most well-known. Even people who’ve never had a Big Mac or asked which part of the chicken a McNugget comes from are still aware of the company and its food. Given the power of that brand, you’d expect the company to slap the McDonald’s name on every new venture, but it’s curiously absent from a recently launched eatery from the company.
On the other side of the globe in Sydney, Australia, you’ll now find a health food restaurant with the simple name of The Corner. It opened last week and sells things like lentils, tomato basil soup and pulled pork, along with craft sodas.
But wait — what are those scribbled words in small print below “The Corner” on its logo? It says “by McCafe,” putting a meta-distance between the restaurant and its corporate ownership, as if McCafe were a subsidiary restaurant chain and not just a brand that McDonald’s slaps on its sugared-up coffees and smoothies.
According to the Daily Telegraph, the only other sign you’ll find in the The Corner of its relationship to McDonald’s is a Ronald McDonald cookie jar on the counter.
“If they’re looking for a Quarter Pounder they’ll probably be sorely disappointed,” explains the manager. “It’s a new concept for us, it’s a learning lab where we test the things that Maccas has never done before and push the boundaries of what we can do in a cafe environment.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist