Here’s an odd question: Where’s the calmest place to eat ice cream? Some would say by the seaside, but you forget about the seagulls swooping down on you. Straight from an Ice Cream Van in a park is a good idea, but there’s every chance a stray football can snap your cone in half.
My answer now is one which might shock you: Eastlands McDonald’s. That’s because the fast food eatery, in the shadow of the Etihad, has recently started playing classical music in the afternoons.
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It’s a move that’s been seen in other McDonald’s outlets across the country, and one which now has reached the outskirts of Manchester city centre. In a brave journalistic expedition for the Manchester Evening News, I went to the restaurant to see how it compares eating with both pop and classical music playing.
“It’s not unpleasant”
First up, pop music for lunch. The Eastlands branch is not the largest in the world, and when I visit there are families everywhere.
I order my Big Mac on the screens, then wait at the counter for my number to be called. When I sit down, there are families on either side of me, with brilliantly behaved children.
Even then, it’s still noisy. Kids are screaming and laughing on the other side of the room, teenagers are grunting at one another, various alarms in the kitchen are beeping away, and generic guitars-and-lyrics are on the soundsystem.
It’s not an unpleasant experience, but it is one which could be refined. The atmosphere is not conducive to people staying a long time — but then again, that isn’t the point of fast food.
As soon as my burger is done, I’m off. I’m told the classical music begins at 3pm, so I have a few hours to wait.
“The most atmospheric McFlurry I'll ever eat”
When I come back, I feel like I’ve come to a different McDonald’s.
It’s now mid-afternoon, so the lunchtime rush is over. It’s still more than half-full, though, with staff finishing their days and getting something to eat.
There are plenty of children. Teenagers are still arguing about who owes who for an apple pie slice. Those alarms are going off again.
And yet, what strikes me most of all is the music — a violin rises, an operatic voice cuts through the crowd, and a piano paints an auditory picture in the background. Before, it felt like the chart-friendly beats were adding to the general chaos of the place.
Now, however, the soundtrack is calming things down. I order a McFlurry, and sit down in the same place I did before.
As I chow down, it’s the most atmospheric McFlurry I’ll ever eat. The songs put you in a reflective mood, and combined with a dramatic, dark cloud rolling in over the stadium, it’s a very moody ambience.
It genuinely made me want to stay a bit longer, and perhaps the biggest indicator of how calm it was inside was how overwhelming stepping out into the busy car park felt. The McDonald’s was no sensory deprivation chamber — but it was a lot nicer than usual.
Of course, one big problem at fast food eateries — not just McDonald’s — can be troublemakers looking to antagonise staff or diners. Classical music is unlikely to stop them, but it makes it all the nicer when they’re not here.
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