storeliker wrote: ... and a real small one in Fremont on Grimmer that was really small.
And now from the other end of the state. I moved to Fremont in 1985 and the Grimmer location was my nearest McDonald's. It was pretty small, Mansard design--the interior done up in a Carousel motif. Carousel horse pictures on the walls. There was even a small, non-working Carousel in the back of the dining area (two or three horses)--and the restrooms were accessed through exterior doors.
A few years later, the Carousel was removed for more seating, and the restrooms were now accessable from the interior of the restaurant. One of the Carousel horses was saved, and shoe-horned into the decor.
The building was demolished in early 2010, and replaced by a retro McDonald's--which in my opinion was botched. The exterior looks somewhat like a circa 1950s McDonald's--but the building is too large and too close to the street to really pull this off. The interior just looks wrong. While there really were no interiors in the early McDonald's to compare to, the Grimmer remodel has a few "Speedee" references awkwardly sprinkled in with modern McDonald's logos. And the furniture and decor could be from any time period.
Much more successful is the "forever young" McDonald's at the US 101 and SR 46 East exit in Paso Robles. Maybe the interior is a little over the top with the Happy Days/American Graffiti look, but still fun. Check that one out if you're ever in California's Central Coast area!