McDonald's Create Your Taste Menu Well Received in Downers Grove

At the Dec. 3 grand opening of the Downers Grove West McDonald’s, the fast-food chain planted its experimental Create Your Taste experience outside California for the first time.

Andrew Fenton, operations consultant for McDonald’s, said the restaurant’s new format, which lets patrons customize premium burgers through a kiosk, has received an “overwhelmingly positive” response since it opened.

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He said the restaurant has employed local students, hosted fundraisers for Downers Grove schools and people seem happier overall with the new location at 2535 Ogden Ave. McDonald’s even worked with a Downers Grove florist to create the table arrangements for a VIP event.

McDonald’s has announced it will expand Create Your Taste to 2,000 restaurants nationwide by the end of 2015. But for now, Downers Grove is one of 20 locations in the U.S. with build-your-own-burger-via-kiosk capabilities.

Fenton said this McDonald’s employs 15 more people than the previous Downers Grove location, which did not have Create Your Taste. The additional personnel stand by the digital kiosks to guide customers through the new ordering format, they make the burgers on an assembly line separate from the standard Made for You kitchen system, and they provide table service.

For now, Create Your Taste orders in Downers Grove are limited to beef patty hamburgers and lettuce wraps. The menu hasn’t been changed or tweaked since the opening. Fenton said other Create Your Taste locations are trying out chicken burgers, and he hopes that option will make its way to this restaurant.

But Fenton said making changes to the kiosk menu, such as potentially adding chicken burgers one day, presents more of an operational challenge than a technical one. The menu on the large screens could be reprogrammed remotely, but the restaurant staff would have to accommodate changes along the assembly line. So kiosk menu adjustments won’t be made lightly.

Create Your Taste is still just an experiment. It’s a test designed to evolve with customer demands and suggestions, which sometimes include things like food allergy accommodation, hyper-specific menu options and lunch rush crowd management.

Fenton emphasized that the same toppings and ingredients on the Create Your Taste menu also go on the “Made for You” orders, such as lettuce and tomatoes. But with Create Your Taste, customers can get burgers on an artisan bun, a ciabatta roll or in a lettuce wrap. Made for You orders come on the standard McDonald’s bun.

The Create Your Taste burger has a quarter-pound, 100 percent USDA inspected beef patty, cooked to order. It’s the same patty that comes on a quarter pounder, but it’s hand-seared on the grill. Other differences come into play with the topping options and the way a customer chooses to dress the burger.

The Create Your Taste menu isn’t available in the drive through, but Fenton said if someone didn’t want to order on the kiosk, they could still order Create Your Taste items from an employee at the front counter.

The customized orders take a few minutes longer to make, but with Made for You menu items still available, McDonald’s is trying to strike a balance between customers who eat and run and those who may spend a little more time and money for quality.

Create Your Taste Build Your Own menu options:

• Number of beef patties
• Bacon
• Artisan roll, ciabatta roll or lettuce wrap
• American cheese
• Natural sharp white cheddar
• Natural pepper jack
• Guacamole
• Chili lime tortilla strips
• Crinkle cut pickle
• Crisp red onions
• Green leaf lettuce
• Tomato
• Jalapenos sliced
• Grilled onions
• Grilled mushrooms
• Mayonnaise
• Big Mac special sauce
• Spicy mayonnaise
• Sweet BBQ
• Creamy garlic sauce
• Mustard
• Ketchup

Want to know what it’s like to use the Create Your Taste kiosk and dine in the new Downers Grove West McDonald’s? Click here to read a first hand account.