The mountain wouldn't come to McDonald's, so McDonald's went to the mountain. The famous fast food chain boasts nearly 37,000 restaurants around the world, but perhaps none is as surprising as the one that nestles on a ski slope in Sweden. Located at the mountainside ski resort in Lindvallen, about 200 miles (322 km) from Stockholm, the so-called McSki franchise operates a full-menu restaurant for those who want to fill up on a Big Mac and fries after a calorie-burning downhill run. Opened in 1996, the eatery has a ski-up window for those in a hurry, but for those who don't want to just drift by, there's also the warmer option of 140 indoor seats. That might be particularly appealing in the winter, when temperatures can drop to -60 degrees F (-51 C).
There's gold in those arches:
- The average McDonald's brings in $2.6 billion USD a year, but franchisees need at least $1 million to open one.
- There's a McDonald's inside an old aircraft in New Zealand, an all-glass McDonald's in the Republic of Georgia, and a UFO-shaped McDonald's in Roswell, New Mexico.
- When the McDonald brothers opened their first restaurant in 1937 in Arcadia, California, they sold hot dogs, not hamburgers.