New McDonald's HQ's 'Global' Restaurant Opens In West Loop

CHICAGO, IL — McDonald's opened a new restaurant inside its new Chicago headquarters Wednesday on Randolph Street. While construction and paving for the new headquarters was underway all around the restaurant Wednesday morning, the restaurant itself was fully finished and offered a friendly greeter at its entrance. The new location offers menu items served at McDonald's restaurants around the world, such as a McSpicy chicken sandwich from Australia, bacon and cheese fries from Australia and a Mighty Angus burger from Canada.

Nick Karavites, the owner and operator of the new McDonald's restaurant, said the global menu will rotate every few months, with new items from other countries replacing old options.

"We have a great portion of what you would find in all McDonald's restaurants," Karavites said. "A few things are not here, like for example for breakfast we don't sell biscuit sandwiches...because we made room for other things."

The restaurant's Australian McCafe was in full operation Wednesday morning, and stocked with a variety of baked goods not sold at other locations, Karavites said. The new West Loop location employs full-time baristas to make specialty espresso drinks.

"We do our espresso-based drinks a little differently a — instead of a fully automatic machine, it's a fully-manual machine," Karavites said.

He said the manual machine is found in every McDonald's in Australia and other parts of the world, but only automatic machines exist in the chain's U.S. restaurants.

The new restaurant at 110 N. Carpenter Street has touchscreen kiosks and 16 tables with touch charging for smartphones. The location has a sleek, modern design — features that are part of the franchise's "McDonald's Experience of the Future" plan to revamp all locations by 2020.

"I think it's a little bit more relaxing than the regular restaurants — the normal restaurants seem a little bit confined," said patron Mike Beesel, who was taking a break from his work on the new McDonald's headquarters to have breakfast at the restaurant. "The decor is nice, it's comfortable and it's modern."

Beesel said he's impressed with the location's new global menu options.

"I think it's very unique — it's different, and might give McDonald's an opportunity to try more of those menu items throughout other locations and see if they work out," he said.

The new 6,000-square-foot restaurant doesn't have a drive-thru, but has a handful of parking spaces outside its front doors for mobile app and online order pickups.

The new McDonald's headquarters has taken over the former location for Harpo Studios, where Oprah Winfrey used to tape her long-running talk show. The current McDonald's headquarters, currently located in Oak Brook, is set to move into the West Loop building later this spring.

The restaurant’s menu will rotate regularly with new global menu items. The first menu rotation includes:

The Mighty Angus Burger from Canada, a 1/3 lb. angus burger topped with a glazed poppy and sesame seed bun, lettuce, onion cheese and bacon and smoky angus sauce:

The McSpicy Chicken Sandwich from Hong Kong, a spicy breaded, marinated and crispy fried chicken breast served on a classic sesame seed bun with lettuce:

Cheese & Bacon Loaded Fries from Australia, served with warm melted cheese and crispy bacon bits:

The Mozza Salad from France, a balsamic dressed pasta salad with roasted tomatoes, served with mozzarella cheese, arugula leaves, choice of crispy or grilled chicken and a breadstick:

The Manhattan Salad from France, a mix of lettuces, baby kale, romaine and spring lettuce topped with grape tomatoes, dried cranberries and sliced apples, served with choice of crispy or grilled chicken and a breadstick:

The McFlurry Prestígio from Brazil, vanilla soft serve ice cream, mixed with strawberry sauce and chocolate covered coconut bites:

Top (location) photos by Amber Fisher