Filed under: Consumer experience, McDonald’s (MCD)

This post is part of AOL Money & Finance’s Best & Worst of 2007. Be sure to cast your vote for the hottest restaurant chain of the year.

America might as well change its tagline to “The Land of the Free and the Home of the Fast Food.” Are we really “brave” any more? Our collective culinary adventures seem to start and end at chipotle peppers. Chipotle, that smokey hot chile whose provenance is deeply American and whose name is synonymous with a whole type of cuisine; in fact, one of the hottest restaurants in the country is named for the spicy stuff.

But it is not Chipotle that is making the splashiest headlines this year; no, it’s the oldest and favorite-est of them all, McDonald’s. McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD). Just take a look at the company’s stock over the past year… three years… five years… the charts read like an American Investment Dream success story. The returns, respectively: 41%, 89.6%, 213.4% seem mystical. Is this the same company whose menu items were flopping and service was embarassing, only a few years ago?

It’s not. The new McDonald’s is the one whose coffee has been deemed better than Starbucks’, and who is rolling out lattes and iced coffees to its outlets nationwide next quarter. With the promise of breakfast all day, a third-pounder burger, and a big push into the market of Starbucks-style loiterers (what with wi-fi and better seating planned), McDonald’s just keeps getting hotter and hotter.

Continue reading Best & Worst of 2007: Hottest chain restaurant

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2007 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.