WHAT TO EAT?
Bulletin staff reports
It seems like a common complaint: There’s no where to eat in Manteca.
But if you toss in all of the places that have take-out food and drinks including curbside BBQs there are more than 110 options in Manteca.
So why does it seem like there are less places? Perhaps it is because roughly a third of all such options – or 35 to be exact – are duplicates.
All the duplicate options – except for home grown La Estrella – are franchise locations.
THE COUNT
The number of multiple locations of restaurants and related concerns in Manteca:
6 Subways
5 McDonald’s*
5 Starbucks
3 Carl’s Jr.
3 Jack-in-the-Box
3 La Estrella
2 Panda Express
2 Round Table Pizza
2 Taco Bell
2 Jamba Juice
2 Baskin-Robbins
* When fifth location is completed
McDonald’s is getting ready to super-size its presence in Manteca.
Plans for the city’s fifth McDonald’s restaurant are before the Planning Commission for approval on Tuesday. The fast food place will be built on the southwest corner of Commerce Drive and East Yosemite Avenue across from In-N-Out Burger.
The 3,915-square-foot restaurant will have two drive-thru lanes and 19 on-site parking stalls with reciprocal rights for customers to access those in an adjoining retail center. The adjoining site has nine more spaces than they are required under city rules. That is enough to allot 27 parking spaces to McDonald’s.
Even so, that just barely meets the minimum requirement for a fast food restaurant. As such, McDonald’s will be limited to just four outdoor seating spaces.
When In-N-Out built across the street they exceeded the minimum requirements as they figure the high profile location would be a huge traffic generator. Even so, there are times excess customer vehicles end up parking across Hulsey Way where Bank of the West is located. In contrast, the small retail center to the east of In-n-Out Burgers where Starbucks and Jamba Juice are located meets the bare minimum parking requirement. It isn’t unusual for customers at those two stores to park in other nearby lots due to the lack of space. And that is with one vacant storefront in that retail center.
The new restaurant will replace the existing McDonald’s located on East Yosemite Avenue next to the Manteca Family Bowl. That McDonald’s building and land is owned by Raymus Development.
Plans calls for two McDonald’s - the new East Yosemite location and one at Airport Way and Daniels Street – to break ground in the coming months. Both will sport the new, modern looking McDonald’s design. Neither location will have an indoor play area. It is part of McDonald’s refocusing their marketing efforts.
The Airport Way location will have a Chick-fil-A as a neighbor.
Currently, the West Yosemite Avenue McDonald’s is closed for modernization. There is also a McDonald’s on Lathrop Road in North Manteca and inside the Manteca Walmart.
