McDonald's all-day breakfast reminds us of Michael Bloomberg's legislation to ban large-size soft drinks in New York City. Both are very full of holes that you wonder why they tried.
Whatever we might think of the ways Americans approach food, half-assed just doesn't cut it.
Will you be able to get hash browns all day? Depends on the McDonald's restaurant configuration. So the location that is 3 miles away may not have them, but the location 5 miles in the other direction might have hash browns.
The primary difference is that McMuffin sandwiches and biscuit sandwiches are regionalized after regular breakfast hours. In the South outside Florida, biscuits rule. Otherwise, McMuffins are the only option. McDonald's says they can't do both after regular breakfast hours.
However, if you are hankering for a McMuffin of some kind and you live in the proper part of the country, this is exciting.
Unlike most of the country, my enthusiasm for fast food breakfast is not as high as "everyone." The only McDonald's breakfast option that had even the slightest appeal for your humble narrator is the sausage biscuit. That isn't an option unless I'm visiting Southern relatives. But even then, and somehow forced to eat at McDonald's, I would still pick lunch over breakfast.
The best tasting fast food breakfast item that I've had in years is the Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken biscuit. But I'm not usually near a location at breakfast time, the chain is not open on Sundays, and the whole anti-gay thing is also a concern.
When I was dipping into the fast food world, I had the opposite issue: wanting burgers and fries for breakfast. I was able to order burgers and fries for breakfast at Jack in the Box in the St. Louis area a number of years back. No one applauded when I order burgers and fries before 7 am and this was before Twitter. While I wanted that in other major fast food restaurants, I severely cut back on fast food before that could ever happen.
I like the idea of breakfast all day. I like the idea of lunch all day. Dinner too. Most of my breakfasts over the last decade have looked more like dinner than breakfast.
We believe in setting your own rules as long as you get what you need throughout the whole day. That includes breakfast for dinner. But you also have plenty of choices to do so, not just what McDonald's can serve you after 10:30 am.
video credit: Late Show with Stephen Colbert
