McDonald’s McCafé: Nights At the Oasis Series visits the West Side
After an engagement on Chicago’s South Side, the Black McDonald’s Operators Association recently brought their “McCafé: Nights at the Oasis” series to 3200 W. Roosevelt Road. As part of an effort to promote and market their new brand of coffees, lattes and mochas, the BMOA continues to use jazz, spoken word and the art-house theme to showcase the brand. V-103’s Sundance assumed the role of host once again, while poet, J. Ivy and jazz ensemble, Zzaje, helped ensure that the customers at Roosevelt and Kedzie were thoroughly entertained at their neighborhood McDonald’s. This time around, rolling out wanted to ask a few of the people who attended to share their most memorable McDonald’s experience with us. –gavin philip godfrey
J. Ivy, spoken word artist
“My favorite McDonald’s memory is the Happy Meal. I remember just driving past McDonald’s and being like, ‘Mom, please stop!’ Get the toy [and] smash the cheeseburger – that’s how you do it.”
Ron Lofton, McDonald’s operator, Roosevelt and Kedzie
“My very first experience with McDonald’s is when they came to my hometown in Erie, Pa., and hamburgers were 15 [cents] and a milkshake was 20 [cents]. I went nuts because I thought that was the greatest thing to hit our hometown.”
Maggie Anderson, customer
“My fondest memory was with my mother. My mom didn’t speak very good English back then — she comes from Cuba — and I remember always having to translate for her with food orders and stuff. My neighborhood McDonald’s had Spanish employees who were always really nice and made us feel very welcome there.”
Marcel Jean, Zzaje
“This week at McCafe has been touching because we’ve had a lot of kids come out to see us perform. It’s really good for us to perform for the younger kids and have them see that there [are] positive brothers out there.”
