McDonald’s hung out its welcome sign on Wednesday and judging by the automobiles wrapped around the newly renovated fast food eatery these past few days, Greenville’s ecstatic.

For the past three months, Camellia City residents had to get their Quarter Pounder fixes elsewhere, watching as one of the city’s oldest fast food establishments was tore to the ground. 90 days of mournful drive-bys, casting lonely looks towards the pile of rubble that used to serve the city and travelers along I-65.

And those vacationers had a really bad time. Having exited, found the Golden Arches and stopped in the turning lane, they were then confronted with a demolished building.

Try to explain the lack of a Happy Meal and its corresponding plastic toy to an irritated and screaming child. While passing at the red light on Fort Dale, I saw one lady driver staring forlorn at the crushed piles of iron and concrete as if someone had kicked her favorite puppy.

But Mickey D’s is back and, in my humble opinion, better than ever.

I enjoyed my first Big Mac on Wednesday around 11 a.m. Your first thought as you enter? Man, this place is huge. Lots of seats – in both the main restaurant area and in the PlayPlace area for children – and even wireless Internet connection for laptop computer owners. Flat screen TVs, computer games for the kids (or the kid in us adults) on a pair of the tables and more spacious seating. No doubt, the new McDonald’s was definitely worth the wait. And – grand re-opening aside – I’m sure the dual drive-thrus will help elevate traffic, which was notorious during lunch and on the weekends at the old place.

Not to mention the new McDonald’s is open all day.

So if you get the hankering for a hot apple pie around 3 a.m., feel free to indulge.

There’s no tearing down this one anytime soon.

Kevin Pearcey is Managing Editor of the Greenville Advocate. He can be contacted by phone at 334-382-3111, Ext. 136.