ATHOL — This isn’t your grandmother’s McDonald’s.
The fast food eatery at 100 Brookside Road in Athol recently got a facelift as part of a nationwide McDonald’s initiative to remodel all restaurants by 2021. The location was open during construction, which started in the fall of last year and appears to be completed.
The renovated restaurant has kiosks immediately to the left after entering the building. Patrons can customize an order on the kiosks, which spit out slips customers take to a cash register to pay. Like the exterior, the inside of the McDonald’s has been modernized and some tables come with plush chairs.
The PlayPlace — once a staple of McDonald’s restaurants — is gone. Michael Dube, an operations supervisor whose job purview included the Athol restaurant until about eight months ago, previously said the play areas are expensive to maintain and come with much liability.
Dube said he still oversees certain restaurants for Gomez Enterprises, a franchise company owned by George Gomez, but the company owner’s son is now the operations supervisor for the Athol restaurant.
Dube said Gomez Enterprises also owns McDonald’s restaurants in the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside, in Northampton, in Easthampton and the two in Greenfield.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or
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