From McMuffins to McLattes

WHEATON, Ill., March 31, 2008— -- The restaurant that brought us fast food is now telling us to slow down. We once turned to McDonald's for McNuggets, McMuffins, and Big Macs, but now the franchise wants us to associate them with McCoffee.

Americans spend big money on beverages every year, says Jan Fields, chief operating officer for all 14,000 McDonald's restaurants nationwide.

"Drinks overall, beverages are a huge growing part of the business and from an industry standpoint, beverages make up $60 billion," Fields said.

They're already selling more than 500 million cups of coffee a year: one in every 10 cups of regular coffee consumed outside the home comes from a McDonald's. But Fields says they looked around a few years ago and realized they were losing big in the gourmet coffee market.

"Five years ago we put in place a 'plan to win,'" she said. "We really wanted to make sure that we were the customers' destination of choice. And along with that came ... convenience, comfortable seating, great locations, along with value and the right offerings."

By the middle of next year, McDonald's will upgrade most of its 14,000 U.S. restaurants. Even though two-thirds of its business comes from its drive-thrus, the interiors are getting an overhaul. New decor, comfier seating, and plasma TVs. Some will even have fireplaces and Wi-Fi.

The McCafe menu includes lattes, cappuccinos, smoothies, iced coffee and sweet tea. They're roughly half the price of coffee bars and you don't have to know a foreign language to order them.

There are no ventes or grandes. Instead, it's small, medium, and large. And the person taking your order will be a "crew member" not a "barrista."

This move pits the fast food, in-and-out giant against the high-tech, sip-and-savor culture of the specialty coffee movement. It's just the latest in the well-established tradition of McMakeovers. In a way, you could say that the McDonald's menu has always been a kind of mirror of the way Americans live, decade after decade.