Go ahead, order an Egg McMuffin with your Big Mac, Chicago. McDonald’s is officially serving all-day breakfast.
The fast food chain has long held off on offering breakfast items after the 10:30 a.m. cutoff due to grill sizes and equipment. The bottom line: Prepping your hash browns and french fries at the same time is no easy task. “It comes down to the sheer size of kitchen grills,” the company said on its website. “They simply don’t have the room for all of our menu options at one time—especially considering we use our grill to prepare many items on our breakfast menu.”
The all-day breakfast menu includes 12 items total. Classics such as the Egg McMuffin, sausage biscuit, hotcakes and sausage burrito made the cut. But there’s one morning favorite not everyone will be able to access late into the day: McDonald’s famed hash brown. According to the fast food empire, about 10 percent of restaurants won’t be offering the fried-to-perfection nuggets. Before you yell “TRAVESTY,” here’s some good news: Chicago made the cut and will be offering hash browns on its all-day menu, according to area locations. Breathe.
McDonald’s started testing the extended breakfast menu earlier this year, and to accommodate demand, restaurants will add extra grills and toasters to their kitchens. The Wall Street Journal reports that the upgrades could cost each franchise location $500-$5,000.
But if you must have hot cakes at 2 p.m., that’s a small price to pay.
Want to learn how to prepare a bacon-centric menu at home? Teach yoself here.