Look for some of McDonald’s Canada’s 50th anniversary celebrations to be served up where it all started – on No. 3 Road near Granville Avenue, the site of its first restaurant outside of the U.S. when it opened on June 1, 1967.
While the restaurant’s current franchise owner, Joe Guzzo, was coy on revealing details about what the party would involve, he said the fact the company decided to preserve the site, as real estate prices remain high across the Lower Mainland, speaks well about the global, fast food giant’s respect for its beginnings in this country.
“There is a lot of land here for a restaurant,” Guzzo said while at the site on Monday morning. “But there’s also a lot of history with this place and it’s important to McDonald’s that they preserve some historical landmarks, like this one here.
“There were temptations, of course, because there is a lot of air space above the restaurant to build upwards,” he added. “But this is the right decision and the restaurant should be here now, forever, but with a brand new building.”
Work to re-develop the site started at the end of January and plans are to have the new, sleekly designed building up and serving in time for the June 1 anniversary. While the structure will be all new, the iconic “golden arches” labelled with the “billion served” message, have been sent for refurbishment and will be re-erected almost exactly where they were originally placed.
“They’ll be all buffed up and fitted with bright new LED lighting. It’s a nice touch they’re being saved,” Guzzo said.
One person who’s looking forward to seeing the re-developed site is Randy Bourne. That’s because he remembers the original place well. In fact, Bourne, 67, said he was the restaurant’s first customer.
His family lived close to the site on Acheson Road — where his father taught accordion lessons — and he decided to cut his Grade 11 chemistry class one morning at nearby Richmond High to check out the place where his two older brothers had landed jobs.
“I thought, what the heck, I’ll go down there,” he said. “So, I walked up to the restaurant and the crew inside was practising, making burgers. The order window popped opened and they said I’d be their very first customer.”
He ordered a hamburger, fries and a drink.
“They didn’t even have any change in the till, so they told me the burger was on them.”
So, how was it?
“I remember it was pretty good,” Bourne said from his winter retreat in Phoenix, Arizona. “I always liked the burgers, especially the little bits of fried onion they used to put on them. But my favourite has always been their fries — that and the vanilla shakes.”
Bourne recalled that the evening after his lunchtime visit the customer lineup stretched for blocks as word spread about the restaurant’s opening.
“It was quite a scene,” he said, adding that being from a family of six — which included four growing boys — his parents were keen to find an affordable meal option for the entire family to enjoy and McDonald’s fit the bill.
“It was a great place and I was a pretty frequent customer back then. Now, I go there with my grandkids. And the fries are still good.”
Steve Krawchuk also recalls the first McDonald’s. That’s where he got his first job as a 15-year-old, about 18 months after the first burger came off its grill.
“Back then, it was difficult for kids to get jobs and it was a great opportunity for teens to get a start,” said Krawchuk, who at the time lived about a mile and half from the restaurant. “It was a small building and when customers came there they walked into a small lobby, we called it a window front, ordered their food and took it back and ate back at their cars in the parking lot.”
“You could get a whole meal for about 65 cents.”
Krawhcuk said he recalls working there was a lot of fun, adding that was one of the reasons he has spent his entire working life with the chain. Today, he owns four locations — two in east Richmond and two in South Delta.
But why was Richmond chosen?
“The story goes that Ray Kroc, McDonald’s founder, came out here and was looking for sites and decided No. 3 Road was a main thoroughfare and opened here. Part of it was also the proximity to the airport,” said Guzzo, who, like Krawchuk, has been with the company since he was 15 and now owns 13 locations, including one on Sea Island’s Russ Baker Way.
“It’s been a great story for the company and for Richmond,” he said.
