After a two-year absence, McDonald’s comes back
A giant inflatable Ronald McDonald stands proudly at the corner of Second Street and Colorado Avenue, greeting passing motorists and pedestrians with his trademark lipstick-full grin and yellow-gloved wave.
The balloon mascot, though seen in most McDonald’s locations nationwide, holds a particular significance at this location, marking the reopening of the golden arches down the street from the Santa Monica Pier after a more than two-year absence.
On Monday morning, the Lardas family, owners of five McDonald’s in Southern California, celebrated the grand re-opening of the 31-year-old franchise in a ribbon-cutting ceremony that not only marked the beginning of a new generation for fast-food dining in the downtown area, but also the end of a cumbersome design and construction process that took more than a decade to navigate.
What was once an aging McDonald’s restaurant sitting on an open parking lot is now a bright-white multi-story beach-style commercial complex in which the sleeker restaurant occupies the ground floor. The building was developed by property owner Realty Bancorp Equities of Woodland Hills and designed by The Landau Partnership Inc., an architectural firm located around the corner from the fast-food joint.
“It’s a fresher and newer look,” Tony Lardas, who runs the restaurant with his father, Nick, said on Tuesday.
Painted in soft and neutral tones, a departure from the red and yellow of many other franchises, the restaurant has the look of a modern establishment, with stainless steel signs, Italian tiles and plasma screen televisions. The interior, designed by Interior Systems Inc., includes an illustration of a wakeboarder on one wall, and a BMX performer on the other, perhaps a tribute to the type of clientele that resides on the Westside.
The design has certainly caught the eyes of its customers, both the new and returning.
“This is really nice,” David Courson, who is visiting Santa Monica with his family from Alabama, said Tuesday morning as he grabbed some breakfast. “It’s a lot more up to date than the ones in Alabama.”
“IT’S A LOT MORE UP TO DATE THAN THE ONES IN ALABAMA.” — David Courson, McDonald’s customer
Perhaps the biggest departures with the new from the old are the additions of an underground parking garage and an enclosed outdoor dining area, something the owner had been lobbying for for years to discourage unwanted and questionable activities that plagued the open patio of the old restaurant. During the mid 1990s, before the Lardas had decided to proceed with new construction, the owners had applied for a permit to add a drive-thru window and enclose the outdoor patio, efforts which were ultimately turned down by city officials.
While most of the building is still vacant, with the possibility of some retail space opening in other parts of the ground floor, the McDonald’s opened last week. Business inside the restaurant has yet to reach pre-construction levels.
Tony Lardas said part of the reason might be the street construction taking place on Second and Colorado, limiting vehicular accessibility. The owners are about to kick off an aggressive marketing campaign, letting the public know that the McDonald’s is back home.
“We want to get the sales back to where we were prior to closing,” Lardas said.
The Lardas have a long history in the dining business, dating back more than 40 years when Nick Lardas owned and operated several coffee shops in Chicago. After selling his businesses, the elder Lardas uprooted the family to California and after learning about the McDonald’s franchise from his cousin, who also owned one, the patriarch decided to buy his first in Ridgecrest Lake.
In July of 1980, Lardas moved the family down south and purchased the Colorado Avenue franchise, which had been built just three years before. The family has since sold the Ridgecrest Lake location and picked up four others, including the one on the Third Street Promenade, and restaurants in Redondo Beach, Malibu and West LA.
While the business operated fruitfully on the busy corner of Colorado and Second, enjoying traffic from the pier and the once-open Santa Monica Place, the restaurant’s old age began showing. With renovation or reconstruction in mind, the owners just stuck on quick-fix bandages.
But it would take more than 10 years from conception to completion, something that Lardas attributes to the time-consuming and windy process of receiving project approvals and permits from City Hall.
In late 2005, work crews began dismantling the golden arches.
“The building is quite nice,” Tom Landau, the founder of The Landau Partnership, said on Tuesday. “It is going to be a beacon for Downtown Santa Monica.”
Jump hedline: After a two-year absence, McDonald’s comes back to Second Street
Suggested pullquote: “It’s a lot more up to date than the ones in Alabama.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 12, 2008. Read the original PDF.