Only a Fortune 500 company like McDonald’s could pull off having a pop up shop brunch during the Essence Festival in its parking lot-=without anyone realizing they’re in an actual parking lot. The brunch was absolutely amazing. We were greeted by the most pleasant McDonald’s servers who were walking around with McCafe smoothies, french fries and apple snacks. The music of the Bangas New Breed Brass Band permeated throughout the pop up venue. The band started out on stage and before I knew it the attendees were joining the horn section in the middle of the floor, happily dancing.
There was an oversized McDonald’s food truck which provided breakfast sandwiches for our enjoyment. I looked up and there was Tyrese standing behind the serving counter with the staff. I know the group TTG was talking about breaking up, but I was hoping that didn’t send Tyrese back to his old McDonald’s uniform. Of course not. However, Tyrese did share a story with the crowd about how younger Tyrese did actually find himself flipping burgers on the grill in a McDonald’s uniform back in South Central, Los Angeles. It wasn’t until he thought to himself one day, “I have way too many teeth in my mouth producing an award winning smile and way too much personality to be in the back flipping burgers” that he knew his next move had to be to get to the cash register.
D Nice was the official DJ, spinning hits and “taking out you suckas and you don’t know how he did it.” Big Tigger, Brian Courtney Wilson and Tank soon joined the party; and that’s when I noticed the turn up of the bottomless mimosas officially began. Although it was hot as fish grease in New Orleans, it didn’t stop anyone from having a fantastic time. We appreciate the amazing marketing job Burrell does for McDonald’s and the 365 McDonald’s coordinating to make events like this happen for Essence Festivals.
