Lang
10/28/21
Local McDonald’s restaurants have changed ownership.
That’s according to Kevin O’Brien, who has owned the franchises for decades. He wrote on Facebook that as of midnight Thursday, he was retiring and turning over operations of the 22 franchises he oversees to the McDonald’s Corporation. About 7% of all McDonald’s franchises are owned by the company.
For 43 years O’Brien and his family have owned and operated McDonald’s restaurants in Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and surrounding areas.
The first O’Brien family McDonald’s opened on Riverside Drive in 1958, followed by a second location in Coralville.
O’Brien was once even portrayed by former Riverside Drive McDonald’s employee Tom Arnold in a famous Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Phil Hartman as Bill Clinton eating the food off McDonald’s diners’ trays.