This is my 7th and final day of a week’s long worth of Eating in LA posts! This post cheats a little though. I’m sure you’ll forgive me.
When I was with Jake and Chris and we were on our way to Porto’s, we spotted this sign in the distance:
We joked about their only being one arch and how it was probably some rip off on McDonald’s until we got closer and realized, “Holy crap, it is a McDonald’s!”
We vowed to go back after eating at Porto’s, and so we did.
This McDonald’s is walk-up only. No drive-thru. Off to the side there’s a small museum and a seating area and some outdoor seats as well.
Here’s a little history:
“The towering neon chef, “Speedee”, was McDonald’s first mascot and symbolic of fast, efficient service… This location was the only “McDonald’s” which was never affiliated with the McDonald’s Corporation; this restaurant did not become a part of the McDonald’s system until 1990. “Speedee” was replaced by a new logo in 1961. Ronald McDonald was created in 1963 with Willard Scott as the first Ronald McDonald… In 1994 this location was closed due to damages caused by the Northridge earthquake and the store reopend in 1996 with the museum and gift shop.” More history below!
There’s even some creepy photos of Willard Scott as Ronald McDonald inside the museum. I did not enjoy that part, hence no photos of that. I’m sure you can Google it and scare yourself.
I did enjoy seeing some of the comparsions with the prices of then vs now.
I also laughed that “today gas is “$2.50 per gallon”. Hah, I wish.
All in all it was totally fun to go visit a little piece of history. We ate hamburgers here just to say we ate at the world’s oldest McDonald’s, but I was honestly so full from Porto’s that I took 2 bites of my hamburger and gave the rest to Jake. I kind of wanted to feed it to the ducks hanging around.
But I didn’t.
Speedee McDonald’s
10207 Lakewood Blvd. (at Florence Ave.)
Downey, CA 90240
This brings back memories…. I worked in Downey off and on for almost a year, and ate here twice.
We just happened to pass by it! I didn’t even know it existed, I thought it was cool they have a little museum there with artifacts from what the cups and containers used to look like. Too bad I didn’t take a photo of that.
omfg, so awesome! i wish i had known about this during our roadtrip! We would have gone here. must program address into our gps thing. we have never been to downey.
oh yeah, we tried the porto’s in burbank on father’s day. loved it!
and yes, that willard scott as the evil ronald mcdonald is pretty freaky and nightmare inducing.
Hi CC – Hate clowns. Love Porto’s! 🙂
I have always wanted to go here!
Thanks, this was so cool!