Though the Nostalgia McDonald’s restaurant near Gurnee Mills is permanently adorned with ’50s rock ‘n’ roll paraphernalia, Friday nights are something special. That’s Cruise In night in the parking lot, and the whole scene looks like something out of “American Graffiti.”
The idea came from Alex Petropoulos’ high school days spent in Waukegan. “We used to do what was called scooping the loop,” he said. According to Petropoulos, riding in a car down Genesee Street in downtown Waukegan was a great way to meet people and show off the car on a Friday or Saturday night.
“When I was growing up, it was also a big deal for my family to take us out once a week to McDonald’s for dinner. That was our one big treat a week,” he explained. It just happened that Petropoulos became associated with the nostalgia-themed McDonald’s when it was being built outside Gurnee Mills. Petropoulos and Jeff Whitens, the operations manager, got together with owner William McEssy and combined both concepts to develop the now weekly event.
“It’s like a picnic,” Petropoulos said. Classic-car owners station their vehicles in the closed-off parking lot. “They get out their lawn chairs and park themselves right next to their babies. What better way to relive that era? It’s such a basic idea. We give the customer a good deal-25-cent hamburgers-and they can walk around our parking lot and relive their memories, which is exactly what they do.”
The event attracts a wide variety of people, from business people stopping by at the end of the day to young dads and moms pushing their kids in strollers.
Rules for the Friday Cruise In are simple. Only cars from 1974 or older are shown. “We felt like that was the year the last true Muscle Car was developed,” Petropoulos said. “But we also have a special-interest category, something that we feel the average customer doesn’t normally get to see.”
The most important rule for browsing the Cruise In is this: Do not touch! “We want you to enjoy yourself, but please look with your eyes, not your hands,” Petropoulos said. “Sometimes we get an overenthusiastic kid, but the owners of these cars are so particular. They usually have `before’ and `after’ pictures. Some of the older cars are over 60-70 years old! And because of the restoration work, they look exactly the way they looked when they came off the assembly line.
“Whenever I get the chance, I stand back and I’m amazed at what we have created,” Petropoulos said. “It feels satisfying that people can have such a great time here. And for a brief moment out of everybody’s life they have a chance to enjoy a good value, have a good conversation and forget about the day-to-day worries of their life.”
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The Cruise In runs from 5 to 9 p.m. every Friday, weather permitting, with no charge for just looking. On Cruise In nights the restaurant sells hamburgers for 25 cents, averaging well over 3,000 each evening. The Nostalgia McDonald’s parking lot is immediately west of Interstate Highway 94 on Illinois Highway 132 (Grand Avenue), Gurnee. For more information, phone 708-855-0229.
