Business Notes RESTAURANTS

McDonald's has a new venue: the diner. After two years of planning, the fast- food giant has opened a one-of-a-kind outlet, the Golden Arch Cafe in Hartsville, Tenn., a small town northeast of Nashville. The 1950s-style restaurant, complete with jukebox, offers such unlikely McFare as lasagna, pork chops and Salisbury steak. The menu includes ordinary hamburgers, but no Big Macs or Chicken McNuggets. While patrons still queue to order their food at a take-away counter, the meal comes on ceramic plates, and is brought to the table by servers sporting bowling shirts.

McDonald's says it opened the cafe to see if a town too small for a regular franchise could support a traditional restaurant. But it has no plans for future golden-oldie branches. The cafe is not the only experiment the Big M has launched in recent months. The company has also introduced pizza, fried chicken and spaghetti at some of its restaurants to bolster sluggish sales.