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.
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.
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. “The most atmospheric McFlurry I'll ever eat” When I come back, I feel like I’ve come to a different McDonald’s.
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.