Your Route to Real News

Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behind

03 June 2023 , 06:14
1339     0
The diner still has tables and chairs laid out (Image: mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)
The diner still has tables and chairs laid out (Image: mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)

An abandoned McDonald's retro restaurant has been pictured eerily quiet with half empty milkshake glasses as though diners left in the middle of eating.

Like a time capsule, the diner looks very much like the busy place it once was but just missing the people.

Ben James, 32, from Cambridge, came across the abandoned “post-apocalyptic” style diner in Chicago that he said looks like a scene straight out of the hit show ‘The Last of Us’.

Inside people have left glasses, saucers and cutlery on the tables while chairs lay askew, as if people had rushed from there in a hurry.

Ben explored the empty diner for around two hours capturing shots of cutlery and plates set on the tables as if the diners were coming straight back.

Inside WW1 military hospital abandoned for decades before new lease of life qhiqqkiqzqidtzprwInside WW1 military hospital abandoned for decades before new lease of life
Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behindThe abandoned McDonald's is in Chicago (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)

The diner had been abandoned since 2017, with rumours circulating that one of the managers at the time had robbed the diner and fled.

And the diner does look as if it had been left yesterday, with the cutlery lying in place on tables like everyone had just left in the middle of their meals one day and never returned.

Although the front of the diner seems almost intact, the kitchen poses another reason the diner was left abandoned as a fire had ravaged through the kitchen, leaving it unusable.

Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behindThe restaurant has a retro look (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)
Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behindIt has seating in booths (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)

Ben said he felt immediately uneasy in the diner, relating the scene to something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

Although the diner had been busy and popular when it was functioning Ben now felt it was uncomfortably quiet.

“It’s pretty awesome being in there, It’s something like out of the Last of Us,” he said. “My favourite thing about it, it just had everything left, plates, cutlery, saucers, coffee cups.

Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behindThe McDonald's is believed to have been abandoned in 2017 (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)
Abandoned McDonald's with retro booths and milkshake glasses left behindThe place looks like people left in a hurry (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotten)

“It gave the feeling that you just expected diners to walk in at any minute. And it used to be such a busy place and it’s just eerily sat in silence, it’s literally like a post-apocalyptic horror film scene.

“It’s just sat abandoned.”

Although it’s just been left empty, Ben was surprised at how well-preserved the diner had been.

“It’s been abandoned since around 2017,” he said. “Apparently there was a robbery there.

Victorian migrant hotel frozen in time for 50 years where thousands went throughVictorian migrant hotel frozen in time for 50 years where thousands went through

“One of the managers was stealing money and he never came back. Although the kitchen is in a really bad state. The kitchen was uninhabitable because of a fire.

“But literally, you could reopen it with a bit of a clean up tomorrow.”

Tim Hanlon

Print page

Comments:

comments powered by Disqus