Marrickville locals reject 24-hour McDonalds and say they are more about ’boutique coffee’
The trendy Sydney suburb up in arms over a 24-hour drive-thru Macca’s: Outraged locals blast plan to bring in ‘trashy spongy junk’ that will lower the area’s ‘culinary tone’
- Burger chain wants to build two-storey, 24-hour drive through
- Locals have blasted the plans, saying suburb is too ’boutique’
Horrified locals have slammed plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to their trendy inner-city Sydney suburb – and branded the world-famous burgers ‘spongy junk’.
The fast food giant has lodged pre-development application plans for a new restaurant in trendy Marrickville, close to craft beer specialist Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre.
But residents in the gentrified suburb have angrily rejected the proposal, with one local insisting the area was more about ’boutique cafes’ than McCafes and burgers.
The suburb, 7km south-west of Sydney’s CBD, has been transformed from its working class roots to a bonanza of coffee roasters, local cafes and small-run breweries.
McDonald’s wants to build a two-storey, 24-hour burger palace with drive through facilities and a large car park on busy Marrickville Road.
‘Marrickville’s more about boutique cafes, supporting locals and quality coffee,’ one local told Nine’s Today show on Wednesday.
Horrified locals have slammed plans to bring a 24-hour McDonald’s to their hipster inner-city Sydney suburb – and branded the world-famous burgers ‘spongy junk’
The fast food giant has lodged pre-development application plans for a new outlet in trendy Marrickville, close to craft beer specialist Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre
‘I think we’ve done pretty well without it,’ added another.
The Inner West Council’s planning alert portal revealing the application has also been hit by furious feedback blasting the submission.
One branded McDonald’s ‘crass, trashy, nauseating and, worst of all, boring’ and said it would be ‘mortifying to bring down the culinary tone with gross, weird, spongy junk’.
Others said Macca’s was welcome to build the new outlet – but warned it would likely close down.
‘I’m not one for nimby-ism so whatever they like,’ one told Today. ‘But it doesn’t mean it will survive here. There’s no need for the Golden Arches.’
But some in the suburb are backing the return of the Big Mac, after an earlier Maccas in the area closed down 15 years ago.
Lifelong local Michael Guirgis, 47, runs the Facebook group We Love Marrickville and says the suburb needs to keep in touch with its working class origins.
‘People are trying to change Marrickville into this really hip area,’ he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘I feel personally like they don’t want to come and adapt to the area, they want to come and change the area.
‘I think we can have it as a hip area as well as a multicultural area like it traditionally was… We can have a bit of everything.’
Lifelong local Michael Guirgis, 47, runs the Facebook group We Love Marrickville and says the suburb needs to keep in touch with its working class origins
McDonalds – which has 300 outlets in NSW – said they were at the early stages of the planned development on the corner of Marrickville Road and Meeks Street.
‘Every McDonald’s restaurant is committed to supporting the community it operates in through job creation, economic investment and ongoing training and development opportunities,’ it said.
‘We look forward to meeting with council to discuss this further.’