Just some minor info about this. It was used during the 1986 Expo in Vancouver BC. Since then it sits floating in the burrard inlet just north of Burnaby.
I can't believe it was just left to die! I ate there every time I attended Expo '86, it's the only place I could afford at the age of 18. I remember taking the West Coast Express train into Vancouver for training one day in 2000 and saw it sitting in Burrard Inlet, I let out a loud "That's the McBarge from Expo, what the heck" ;o))) Great memories!
"Wow. I remember when this was just a beautiful, one of a kind floating restaurant. The nickname was 'McBarge', while the christened name was 'Friendship', in honor of the folks from around the world that visited Expo 86. Expo 86 set and re-set every sales record from around the world. I would bet big money that those records will (maybe?) never be broken ..... simply unbelievable, and we charged the same menu prices as off-site restaurants, opened at 10:00 in the morning (no breakfast), did not have drive thru's (usually 50 to 60 percent of sals, my numbers may be a bit out after all these years. By the by, the deal with Expo was that ALL the profits went back to Expo 86, and one of the benefits to McD's was that we were supposed to get a permenant site for the floating restaurant in the False Creek area after the fair. Hmmmm, when the beloved NDP got in with the next election they scrapped the deal that had been signed with the Gov., and we got screwed. That is why that beautiful design has sat down at the end of Burrard Inlet for the past many years. The 'McBarge' has long since been sold to a guy trying to relocate it up the Fraser River to Mission, where it would be the centre piece of a riverfront development. I think that there may have been a bit of a lawsuit and settlement with the good old NDP, and life carries on. Bottom line .... Expo 86 along with McBarge was a time/place/event the likes of which we will never see again in my opinion. The high point of my career, and great memories. A bit sad to sees), etc etc. A HUGE day for a VERY high volume restaurant today would be maybe $20,000, while our record was about $58,000 for one store. During Expo an average store might do a million and a half dollars in a year. We had a store (5 stores on Expo site) do $1,250,000 in one month. A heavily staffed restaurant might have 25 people working at a given rush hour. We at a peak rush had up to 125 working in one restaurant in order to run service systems that we developed from scratch and were mind blowing within the McD's world....eg. a $1000 hour is not bad for some stores, but we developed a system, manned by some INCREDIBLY productive staff .... one three person team did $970 in ONE hour on ONE till. We employed 1300 people at Expo What a great bunch of memories. Expo was 165 days long, and my memory says that 16.5 million people visited Expo in that time. McD's did $1.00 in sales for every man/woman and child that visited the site .... about $16.5 million in sales for the 165 daye the Old Girl in such a sad state, but maybe with a bit of a face lift?" REAL TALK FROM MY FATHER
Wow, thanks for the details on those memories. I was one of that three-person team to do $970, but I'd forgotten the amount. Was a really great time at Expo.
bit of more history to it => http://www.miss604.com/2009/02/vancouver-history-tidbits-mcbarge.html
ReplyDeleteand it wasnt the only one (dunno the last one..) there was also one in St Louis
Wasn't this also used as the headquarters in Nash Bridges?
ReplyDeletewish you would give a little info, like where is this?
ReplyDeletewhere is this?
ReplyDeleteJust some minor info about this. It was used during the 1986 Expo in Vancouver BC. Since then it sits floating in the burrard inlet just north of Burnaby.
ReplyDeleteUm, there's one on the river outside St. Louis by the Arch.
ReplyDeleteThis was McBarge. It's in the Vancouver area.
ReplyDeleteIt was used in the movie Blade Trinity.
what shame and a waste...could have made a great floating restaurant on the vancouver waterfront! such a cool design...
ReplyDeleteI can't believe it was just left to die! I ate there every time I attended Expo '86, it's the only place I could afford at the age of 18. I remember taking the West Coast Express train into Vancouver for training one day in 2000 and saw it sitting in Burrard Inlet, I let out a loud "That's the McBarge from Expo, what the heck" ;o))) Great memories!
ReplyDeleteI thought someone bought this and is moving it to Mission to turn it into a floating pub?
ReplyDelete"Wow. I remember when this was just a beautiful, one of a kind floating restaurant. The nickname was 'McBarge', while the christened name was 'Friendship', in honor of the folks from around the world that visited Expo 86. Expo 86 set and re-set every sales record from around the world. I would bet big money that those records will (maybe?) never be broken ..... simply unbelievable, and we charged the same menu prices as off-site restaurants, opened at 10:00 in the morning (no breakfast), did not have drive thru's (usually 50 to 60 percent of sals, my numbers may be a bit out after all these years. By the by, the deal with Expo was that ALL the profits went back to Expo 86, and one of the benefits to McD's was that we were supposed to get a permenant site for the floating restaurant in the False Creek area after the fair. Hmmmm, when the beloved NDP got in with the next election they scrapped the deal that had been signed with the Gov., and we got screwed. That is why that beautiful design has sat down at the end of Burrard Inlet for the past many years. The 'McBarge' has long since been sold to a guy trying to relocate it up the Fraser River to Mission, where it would be the centre piece of a riverfront development. I think that there may have been a bit of a lawsuit and settlement with the good old NDP, and life carries on. Bottom line .... Expo 86 along with McBarge was a time/place/event the likes of which we will never see again in my opinion. The high point of my career, and great memories. A bit sad to sees), etc etc. A HUGE day for a VERY high volume restaurant today would be maybe $20,000, while our record was about $58,000 for one store. During Expo an average store might do a million and a half dollars in a year. We had a store (5 stores on Expo site) do $1,250,000 in one month. A heavily staffed restaurant might have 25 people working at a given rush hour. We at a peak rush had up to 125 working in one restaurant in order to run service systems that we developed from scratch and were mind blowing within the McD's world....eg. a $1000 hour is not bad for some stores, but we developed a system, manned by some INCREDIBLY productive staff .... one three person team did $970 in ONE hour on ONE till. We employed 1300 people at Expo What a great bunch of memories. Expo was 165 days long, and my memory says that 16.5 million people visited Expo in that time. McD's did $1.00 in sales for every man/woman and child that visited the site .... about $16.5 million in sales for the 165 daye the Old Girl in such a sad state, but maybe with a bit of a face lift?" REAL TALK FROM MY FATHER
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for the details on those memories. I was one of that three-person team to do $970, but I'd forgotten the amount. Was a really great time at Expo.
ReplyDelete