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3 JUN 04: MAC ATTACK?
"Columbus's Finest Homestyle Burger" boasts the sign outside a new fast-food restaurant downtown. Now hold on a minute! At this time of year, if the burger's not cooked on a Char-Broil grill, is it REALLY "Columbus homestyle?"
But that claim was NOT what prompted me to visit this restaurant Wednesday. The hamburger stand near 8th and Veterans Parkway is named "Mac Daniel's Burger Park." At least it's located near all sorts of law offices - which the owner may need when McDonald's headquarters finds out about it.
Daniel Hill opened Mac Daniel's Burger Park last Friday, on the site of an old Chinese take-out restaurant. He told me the name "Mac Daniel" was his wife's idea. I'm not sure where the "park" came from - except that trees are green on both sides of it.
So far the options are simple at Mac Daniel's Burger Park - so simple that the menu board above the counter is half-empty. If enough people buy Daniel Hill's burgers, perhaps he'll expand all the way to hot dogs.
Daniel Hill says business is going "pretty good" so far. But when I visited Mac Daniel's Burger Park around 1:30 Wednesday afternoon, only one woman was inside with Hill and me. Maybe I timed it wrong -- and the next Greyhound bus was arriving less than a block away at 2:30.
Mac Daniel's Burger Park is located six blocks down Veterans Parkway from a downtown McDonald's. But Daniel Hill seemed unconcerned when I brought up the competition. "We serve homestyle burgers. They taste better, they're bigger -- and they're a whole lot cheaper!" They are? Hill's place doesn't have a one-dollar value menu yet....
But I had to come back to that name - "Mac Daniel's Burger Park." McDonald's tends to be very protective of its name, and tries to stop businesses (especially restaurants) from having a name anywhere close. The only exception which comes to mind might be Mack Trucks.
(In fact, it's a wonder children in kindergarten haven't been forced to change that classic song to "Old Montgomery Had a Farm....")
Daniel Hill has an explanation ready, should the McDonald's suits march down the street toward his little hamburger stand. "They're McDonald's, like the name of somebody. I'm M-A-C." And as we all know, that extra letter cleared the way for Snoop Dogg to be a big success.
Besides, Daniel Hill told me, "Mac means number one." So in the slang of the street, he's the number one Daniel. That might work for McDonald's attorneys -- but wait until Daniel TV and Appliance finds out about this.
I wish Daniel Hill well -- and it turns out I'm on the leading edge of the Mac Daniel Burger Park story. Hill says he'll appear on TV next week, promoting his new restaurant. If anyone in the McDonald's corporate office reads this blog, he might appear sooner than he expects -- as he's served a "cease and desist" order.
SONG OF THE DAY: Since we brought up that old children's tune, how about a version fitting our topic:
Old McDonald changed his name.
E-I-E-I-O!
'Cause on his farm attorneys came.
E-I-E-I-O!
With a trademark here and a briefcase there....
Here a suit! There a suit!
Threatening a lawsuit!
Old McDonald changed his name --
Else big bucks he'd owe!
BLOG CORRECTION: It turns out Tillman Pugh only won his Russell County Commission primary Tuesday. He's NOT reelected yet, as he faces a Republican opponent in November. We'll see if John Kerry cares enough about this to visit Phenix City....
COMING FRIDAY: If there aren't any big things, I have a number of little things....
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