In 1985, McDonald’s rolled out a burger across the country whose main selling point was its box. The McDLT, short for McDonald’s Lettuce and Tomato, came in a two-sided container, and by January 1991 it was gone. It is one of 4 menu items that were once common at the chain and are rarely, if ever, seen now.
The others are the Arch Deluxe, the Hula Burger and Onion Nuggets. Each has a documented history, from a Texas franchisee’s idea to a burger that cost an estimated $300 million to launch.
1. The McDLT: A Burger With a Two-Sided Box
According to Wikipedia’s entry, the McDLT was sold from 1984 to 1991 and was invented by Wil May, a franchisee in Lufkin, Texas. McDonald’s had historically resisted putting lettuce and tomato on burgers, fearing that the hot meat would wilt them and make the bun soggy, so the sandwich came in a dual-compartment polystyrene container. One side held the bottom bun and hot beef patty, and the other held the top bun, lettuce, tomato, American cheese, pickles and sauces.
The slogan was “Keep the hot side hot, and the cool side cool,” and the customer flipped the cool side onto the hot side right before eating. A 1985 television commercial featured Jason Alexander singing and dancing in a Broadway-style production for the burger. The craftingyourhome.com site also has a post titled Families in the 60s & 70s Had 8 Saturday Morning Habits That Today’s Generation Is Missing.
Mashed reports that McDonald’s said it ended the McDLT over the environmental concerns around polystyrene foam, and that a McDonald’s grillmaster explained it was hard to keep both sides at temperature while waiting for customers. The Wikipedia entry adds that the container was nearly double the size of a standard burger box, which created storage problems behind the counter. The chain replaced the burger with the McLean Deluxe in January 1991. Frenz Hub also has a post titled 31 Forgotten Household Items from the Past.
2. The Arch Deluxe: The Grown-Up Burger
The Arch Deluxe was sold by McDonald’s in 1996 and marketed to adults. It was a quarter pound of beef on a split-top potato flour sesame seed bun, topped with a circular piece of peppered bacon, leaf lettuce, tomato, American cheese, onions, ketchup and a Dijon mustard and mayonnaise sauce called Dijonnaise.
The chain first tried the burger as a “Taste of the Month” item in Canada in October 1995, according to Wikipedia, and released it in May 1996 with what was described as one of the most expensive advertising campaigns to date. Prices ranged from $2.09 to $2.49. Wikipedia notes that customers were dissuaded by the price and unconventional ads, and that McDonald’s finally discontinued the burger on Aug. 18, 2000. McDonald’s was estimated to have spent over $300 million on research, production and marketing.
The Mashed list describes the Arch Deluxe as one of the chain’s most spectacular failures, tagged with the line “Burger with the Grown-up Taste.” It also reported that in January 2018 some Oklahoma and Texas restaurants were testing a revamp called the Archburger. For more on ’60s-era food nostalgia, Frenz Hub’s 15 Foods From the ’60s Most Boomers Loved With a Passion is a related post on the partner site.
3. The Hula Burger: A Pineapple Slice on a Bun
The Hula Burger contained no beef. Mashed says it was a thick slice of grilled pineapple on a hamburger bun with the usual toppings such as cheese, lettuce, tomato and burger sauce. Founder Ray Kroc invented it, according to both Mashed and the Wikipedia list of McDonald’s products, as a meatless option for Catholic customers on Fridays during Lent.
Mashed dates the test to 1962 and Wikipedia’s list to 1963, so the year depends on the source. Both agree on the setup: the Hula Burger was tested against the Filet-O-Fish, and the winner would join the menu. Mashed reports that on Good Friday at select locations only six Hula Burgers sold, against 350 Filet-O-Fish sandwiches.
.jpg?width=1600)
The Filet-O-Fish stayed. The Hula Burger became one of the products that, in Mashed’s words, never quite made it to legendary status at the chain. A Frenz Hub post titled 8 Little Rituals From the ’80s and ’90s That Disappeared Without Much Notice is another look back.
4. Onion Nuggets: The Menu Item Before McNuggets
Mashed says Onion Nuggets were invented by Rene Arend, a McDonald’s cook, in the 1970s. The onions were cut into chunks instead of rings, dipped in a breadcrumb batter and fried. They were added to menus in several locations during 1978 and 1979 to test their popularity, and Mental Floss likewise describes them as available only in select U.S. markets in those two years.
During that testing, the McDonald’s chairman suggested that Arend drop the onions and work on a chicken product. Wikipedia’s Chicken McNuggets entry says Arend, McDonald’s first executive chef and a native of Luxembourg, created the Chicken McNuggets recipe in 1979. Supply problems were solved by 1983, and McNuggets became available nationwide in the United States.
Mashed says the nuggets began selling in 1983 and calls them the 7th most popular item sold at the chain. Onion Nuggets did not follow. The craftingyourhome.com site also has a post titled 10 Kitchen Appliances That Changed How American Families Cooked.
What “Rarely Seen” Does and Does Not Mean
None of the 4 items is a mystery. The McDLT came out of a franchisee’s kitchen and ended with a packaging decision. The Arch Deluxe was a costly bet on adult customers, and the Hula Burger lost a one-day sales test by a wide margin. Onion Nuggets gave way to a chicken product that became one of the chain’s best sellers.
“Rarely seen” is also not the same as gone for good. Wikipedia notes that the McDLT’s hot-and-cold idea came back in the Big N’ Tasty without the special box, and that in 2025 Al Roker said he wished McDonald’s would bring back the McDLT. The Archburger test in 2018 was reported as a revamp rather than a return.
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
Image: Harrison Keely – CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons
