Vinita, Oklahoma: Former World's Largest McDonald's

Don't waste your time. It was the filthiest McDonald's I've ever been to. I would suspect the building is maintained by someone other than McDonald's because I would be surprised that McDonald's would allow it to be as dirty as it was. The vents were caked with dust, the tables were dirty (many were broken), the bathrooms disgustingly gross! Once we saw the surroundings, we lost our appetite...

It may not be the World's Largest McDonald's any more, but it's still pretty impressive!

Vague Recollections: What is today a McDonald's has not always been so. When I was growing up, in the mid to late 60's, Howard Johnson's had the exclusive food concessions at all the service areas on Oklahoma's turnpikes. In most places the service area was in an extra wide portion of the median with the facilities in the median and traffic passing on either side. The one exception was the one at Vinita, which arched over the highway. When I last passed through in 1987 some, if not all of the service areas had a McDonald's.

"Still the world's largest!" Boast the signs as you cruise I-44 towards Tulsa. And, as McDonald's restaurants go, it is pretty impressive: the structure is built over the interstate, with a highway exit on each side and a golden arch on the facade spanning all lanes of traffic. If there's not too much of a crowd, you can enjoy your Big Mac at a window seat and watch the commerce of the nation roar by mere inches under your feet. But, "world's largest?" The actual McDonald's part of this McDonald's isn't any larger than what you'd find around any shopping mall, and it occupies a relatively small area of the whole building. The rest is given over to a gift shop, ice cream shop, tourist information stand, and, frankly, a whole lot of empty, unused space. So what gives? I asked the woman selling distinctly non-McDonald's merchandise at the gift store, and she explained that yes, restaurants in Beijing and Moscow and elsewhere can seat more people and are, honestly, bigger.