This is not just another McDonald’s.
This hamburger restaurant at 7751 W. Sample Road was the first McDonald’s built in Coral Springs.
It was the first in McDonald’s history to be built without trademark golden arches, because of strict city sign laws.
The absence of the arches has been used on the television quiz show Jeopardy! and included in the board game Trivial Pursuit. February marked another milestone for the restaurant. On Feb. 10, the original owner, Robert A. Papp, 69, sold the restaurant and went into retirement.
“It’s just that time,” he said.
The restaurant still will be a McDonald’s, but its owner will be Brenda Wells, who owns two other area McDonald’s.
“It’s exciting,” Wells said. “I love McDonald’s, and I love what I’m doing.”
Papp built the restaurant in 1975, after he “retired” from his position as vice president of construction engineering at McDonald’s headquarters in Oak Brook, Ill. He was 50 years old.
Papp asked his family where they wanted to go. The options were Denver, northern Florida and southern Florida. The family opted for South Florida because of the weather, Papp said.
At first it was difficult because so few people lived in the young suburb.
“For the first five, six years we were in business, it was a nightmare,” Papp said. “Sample Road was only two lanes. It was sort of hickey.”
Papp said that “we all worked real hard, double shifts, finally it all started coming together.”
Business picked up with the building of nearby Coral Springs High School, the widening of Sample Road and the overall improvement of the economy, Papp said.
Now, the restaurant is quite busy, though Wells said the corporation doesn’t permit the disclosure of sales data.
Wells plans a few changes, such as converting the single drive-through to a double drive-through and repainting the lobby from baby blue to teal. But she plans to keep an original fry vat that is almost 20 years old and still in good working order.
Except for the cosmetic changes, Wells said, “it’ll still be the same McDonald’s.”
