McDonald’s Opens with VIP Reception

On Sept. 16 Loma Linda’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened its doors to the community. Approximately 200 residents came out to the newly-built restaurant at 25775 Barton Road in Loma Linda for the grand opening event and VIP Reception that evening. Owner Wahid Balkhi said he was “pleasantly surprised to see that our community is very happy that we’re here,” he said on Monday morning, Sept. 23, between helping service the morning’s customers and guide employees in their duties. He shared that since its opening just a little over a week ago, the restaurant has served an average of 1,500 customers a day, and many have had positive things to say about Loma Linda’s new fast-food restaurant. “We have gotten so many compliments on our decor, on the restaurant, on our products and our service,” said Balkhi. The restaurant has also hired 60 new employees, most of whom are young people from Loma Linda, he shared. “We’ve gotten a very positive response,” Balkhi said. “Parents are coming and they’re seeing their kids working and it’s tremendous. We wanted to hire from Loma Linda, and many of the workers can walk home after [their shifts].” Though there was some opposition to the McDonald’s location in Loma Linda during its beginning planning stages because some believed the fast food chain could hurt the city’s well-known reputation for health, Balkhi, who owns three other McDonald’s restaurants, said McDonald’s has made an effort to offer healthy choices to its patrons, and the Loma Linda location is happy to comply with any special order they may receive. “We built this beautiful restaurant for the community in hopes to satisfy the community’s needs,” said Balkhi. “It’s about letting people know what we are really about. We cater to everyone who is interested in healthy [eating]. We have everything everybody wants, whatever [it is],” he said. The restaurant offers a range of healthier alternatives alongside traditional McDonald’s menu options, including veggie wraps, grilled chicken sandwiches, egg white breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal, parfaits, berry smoothies and salads—a very popular food item, Balkhi noted—and the restaurant also offers Happy Meals with apple slices in place of French fries, if parents or children so choose. Balkhi said, “30 percent of our customers have utilized those healthy items, and they do understand that if they ask for no meat, we will give them no-meat options for a reduced price.” For the most part, he said patrons are surprised at the amount of healthy options the restaurant does have. “When we had our VIP reception, there were about 200 people who went on a tour of the restaurant. They got to see our freezers, and they were amazed at how many fresh products we use and how much healthy food we have,” said Balkhi. For Angel Rodriguez and his partner Erika Salinas, Loma Linda residents, the appealing draw of the McDonald’s was that it was “somewhere close by and affordable to have family time,” said Salinas. She felt the restaurant was being well-received, as there were many students from Bryn Mawr Elementary School, where her daughter Alyssa Salinas, 9, attends, at the restaurant after school last Friday afternoon, she said. For Adriana Calderilla, a 21-year-old Fontana resident who frequents Loma Linda—she brings her father to Loma Linda each Monday for a regular doctors’ appointment—the McDonald’s offered her a convenient and affordable option to take her father for coffee before his appointments, she shared. Loma Linda Chamber of Commerce CEO Phil Carlisle said the Chamber was happy to welcome the business into the community. “We are glad they are here,” Carlisle said. Balkhi added that the restaurant promotes a healthy, active lifestyle with its depictions of runners and healthy food options like apples and fruits which make up the restaurant’s interior decor. “We planned that from the beginning. My wife [Sue Balkhi] is a runner and we are into that healthy concept,” he said. The McDonald’s is open Mondays through Fridays beginning at 5 a.m. and closing the following morning at 2 a.m. McDonald’s is open Saturdays and Sundays from 6 a.m. to midnight. Balkhi said the restaurant is also looking to continue hiring new employees from the Loma Linda area.