Fast-food giant McDonald’s will be eschewing its trademark beef burgers to open its first all-vegetarian outlet in the world.
The vegetarian McDonald’s restaurant will be opening its doors by mid-next year, in northern India, near the Golden Temple in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar.
Consumption of meat is forbidden at the shrine, and vegetarian meals are served as part of the pilgrim’s experience.
“It will be the first time we have opened a vegetarian restaurant in the world,” Rajesh Kumar Maini, a spokesman for McDonald’s in northern india, told AFP. “In markets across the world, McDonald’s respects local cultures and has adopted our menu and dining experience to local preferences. The new restaurants in pilgrimage areas will be vegetarian-only because of the specific area and customer base.”
The restaurant chain plans to open another vegetarian outlet in north-western India, at the foot hills of the Vaishno Devi cave shrine in a small town Kashmir—which is a Hindu pilgrimage site that attracts thousands of visitors each year.
Tourists might say, “Holy cow!”, when they visit the vegetarian outlets to find that they won’t be having beef to literally respect the sacred animal.
[via BBC, image via spirit of america / Shutterstock.com]