The Burger McDonald's Sold To Draw Foodies To The Restaurant Was A Fast Food Fail

McDonald's is many things — a fast food behemoth, a fairly reasonably-priced meal in a pinch, and for some, a strategic way to wear out your kids at the beloved PlayPlace. What it's not, is fine dining. But that hasn't stopped the biggest fast food chain in the world from making attempts at drawing in a crowd with a more refined palate. There was the McCrab, an ill-fated stab at capitalizing on the popularity of crab cake sandwiches by replacing the Quarter Pounder patty with a crab patty instead. There was also a short-lived, higher-quality Angus burger. And, yes, there was, unfortunately, a McLobster. (You can probably imagine why it didn't take off.) But one of McDonald's most expensive endeavors aimed at drawing in sophisticated diners was also one of its biggest flops: The famed Arch Deluxe burger.

It's not like this burger wasn't special. The Arch Deluxe was, in the words of McDonald's, a "premium burger experience" invented by a lauded chef. In 1994, Andrew Selvaggio — who was once the chef at Chicago's fine dining restaurant Pump Room (now The Ambassador Room) — became head chef at McDonald's. Selvaggio was tasked with creating an "adult" burger to appeal to affluent Gen-Xers. When it was all said and done, the Arch Deluxe featured a hefty burger packed with crisp lettuce, cheese, peppered bacon, and a special sauce that included fancy stone ground mustard — all stacked atop a bakery-style potato roll. For as tasty and "elevated" as that sounds, it never quite lived up to expectations.

McDonald's hinged its hopes on consumers craving something more sophisticated, but in reality, marketing the burger as "upscale" was the Arch Deluxe's Achilles' heel. Despite spending more than $200 million on advertising — along with the tagline: "The burger with the grown-up taste" — the reaction from customers was lukewarm. Focus groups reportedly loved the burger, but that response clearly didn't offer an accurate read on regular consumers. As it turns out, most people just wanted their reliable Big Mac or McDonald's Filet-O-Fish — not some upgrade they were unfamiliar with. McDonald's listened and within a few years the item was completely pulled from their menus and chalked up to one of the worst mistakes in McDonald's history.

Still, even though it was one of the most famous and expensive failures — it was literally featured in the Museum of Failure exhibition — the Arch Deluxe earned a bit of a cult following. So much so that McDonald's actually tested a new version of it in 2018, but the jury's out whether that will ever come to fruition. Perhaps if the Arch Deluxe was released at a different time to a different market, maybe the odds would have been in its favor. At the moment, the Arch Deluxe won't be one of menu items factored into the 6.48 million burgers sold at McDonald's every day. Either way, it's clear that fast food trends come and go, so who knows what's next on the horizon for Mickey D's.