Call it the McMet.
The original Golden Arches museum in Des Plaines, Illinois, may have shuttered in 2017, but there’s still a place to get your vintage McMemorabilia fix.
Enter the so-called First Original McDonald’s Museum, an unofficial gallery located in San Bernardino, California, where Dick and Mac McDonald opened the first-ever McDonald’s in 1940.
Despite being located at the site of the Golden Arches’ flagship store, which was torn down in 1972, the McMuseum is not affiliated with the McDonald’s corporation — although it is presumably aware of its existence, SF Gate reported. (The Post has reached out to McDonald’s for comment.)
Think of the museum as the equivalent of a really intricate Gucci knockoff on Canal Street.
Authenticity notwithstanding, the museum attempts to immerse curious burger fans in the history of the iconic fast-food chain.
Out front of the First Original McDonald’s Museum — which is open daily and offers free admission — sits cast-off statues, including a googly-eyed Hamburglar and a Grimace whose purple paint is faded like something out of an abandoned post-apocalyptic town.
Meanwhile, walking inside evokes entering the fast food equivalent of the relic-filled basement from the movie “National Treasure.”
The museum houses a veritable treasure trove of retro Happy Meal toys, vintage employee outfits and even replica menus from the original barbecue restaurant (yes, the now-franchise previously served BBQ).
There’s even clothing worn in the Michael Keaton-starring 2016 film “The Founder,” which tells the story of how ruthless milkshake monger Ray Croc turned the McDonald’s bros’ innovative restaurant into a multibillion-dollar fast-food empire.
Speaking of eccentric characters, the museum was the brainchild of the late Albert Okura — founder of the successful Juan Pollo rotisserie chicken chain — who purchased the building in 1998.
He basically channeled Indiana Jones, thinking the Golden Arches tchotchkes deserved to be “in a museum.”
It was just one of several zany ideas dreamed up by the visionary, who died in early 2023.
Okura also purchased Amboy, California — a ghost town in the Mojave desert — with the goal of turning it into a tourism and hospitality mecca.
However, unlike the McDonald’s museum, this idea never came to fruition.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
