Remembering Friendship 500, the McBarge That McDonald’s Built to Appear More Elegant

The attempt to appear a bit more high-brow yet still remain on the affordability scale that made it such a popular choice with so many people is called the McBarge. The McBarge, officially titled Friendship 500 or Friendship McDonald's, is today a sad, rusty, badly damaged relic that bobs away on the waters of Maple Ridge in British Columbia, Canada.

Perhaps more impressive than the existence of such a giant floating restaurant by McDonald's is the way in which it has seemingly resisted all attempts at making a comeback yet still holds its appeal. The McBarge may be a cautionary tale in terms of how much money goes into PR stunts meant to change a brand's image, but it's also a legend.

Back in 1986, there was a significant shift in consumer behavior, and as one of the world's largest restaurant chains, McDonald's felt its impact right away. That shift saw younger consumers that constituted the target of a fast food chain like McD's looking to spend a little more so they could eat at places that were or, at least, presented themselves as more high-brow.

So McDonald's decided that it could do high-brow too and that it could do it with a floating restaurant of the kind that had never existed before. Affordable elegance was the vibe McDonald’s was going for with what would become the McBarge, the second floating restaurant ever to fly the McDonald's banner. The first one was the Mississippi floating restaurant that opened in 1980 and continued serving clients for the next two decades.

For the McBarge, it was decided that McDonald's would go supersize. This location was bigger and fancier than its U.S. counterpart and got its big public debut at Canada's six-month-long Expo '86, where it was hailed as a gorgeous and, you guessed it, elegant example of innovation and tradition. It also served food because that's what McDonald's does.

Based on a design by Robert Allan Ltd., the McBarge came with a reported cost of $12 million, which would be roughly $33.4 million in today's money. It sat on a 187-foot (57-meter) long barge with two decks, offering both indoor and outdoor space for dining. The finishes were elegant, a combination of rich burgundy tones with whites and blues for a nautical theme, and tasteful art pieces on the walls.

Reports note that McBarge could host some 1,400 people in the garden rooms, the interior dining rooms, and on the wraparound deck. Particularly interesting but not surprising given the desire to "class it up," the kitchen was completely hidden from view, and customer orders arrived on a conveyor belt. No surprise then that the venue was a hit with the public, who rushed to enjoy a Mac and fries with excellent views of the Expo or out on the water.

The plan was for McDonald's to make the most of the investment by simply relocating the restaurant once the Expo was over, but it never did. Docked at Vancouver's False Creek, it remained there for years, abandoned and apparently forgotten, until McDonald's was ordered to have it removed.

By the time it was moved next to an oil refinery on Burrard Inlet in 1991, it had already been stripped of the interiors and even most of its copper. In 2015, it was relocated again, this time to Maple Ridge. Despite several changes in ownership and location, the McBarge was never used actively after the Expo '86 – a very expensive one-off project of massive proportions.

But that's not to say that people haven't tried, with plans focusing on it being turned into a floating restaurant, a waterfront property, then a maritime museum, and then some kind of observation center and even a homeless shelter. All attempts were foiled by zoning and local regulations, despite a handful of online campaigns and lobbying.

In 2009 or early 2010, developer Howard Meakin bought the McBarge, after it reemerged into the spotlight when it was featured in the movie Blade: Trinity. He's still the owner today, and in what is perhaps the strangest part of the story, he's still trying to bring it back to its former glory.

As the video below will show, in 2021, Meakin was in discussions to buy a piece of land that would be part of a larger development that would also include the McBarge. He was also planning to restore it, but he never said what for. But he did say that the upper once-open deck would be eventually enclosed and turned into a gallery packed with Expo '86 memorabilia.

The McBarge is now a bare-bones structure, a heap of rusted metal that bears only a slight resemblance to the fancy boat McDonald's built almost four decades ago as part of a failed image rebrand. But it's still afloat and, under all the rust, it's still intact, which is a very unexpected testament to the work McD's did with it.