The Reason McDonald's Doesn't Serve Breakfast All Day

The mythical all-day McDonald's breakfast looms large in our collective psyche. Who could resist the siren call of those tasty Egg McMuffins, Sausage Biscuits, and hash browns at all hours of the day? Even today, people still clamor for its return, interpreting just about anything as "hints" that it could come back. But the interesting thing is that McDonald's all-day breakfast was a historical anomaly: there were only five years, from 2015 to 2020, where McDonald's offered it. So what happened? Did they decide they were bringing too many people joy? No, it comes down to the fact that there isn't very much room in McDonald's kitchens.

Mike Haracz, a former cook at McDonald's, said as much in a TikTok video, not long after all-day breakfast was discontinued. He said that, while the timing might have made it seem like the offer ended due to the pandemic, the truth is that operating two menus at the same time was "operationally complex." Operating any kitchen is an exercise in spinning plates (even if you work at a McDonald's, which doesn't really have plates), and shifting from breakfast to lunch/dinner is much easier than keeping track of who ordered fries and who ordered hash browns. McDonald's corroborates this, saying that serving breakfast all day takes up precious space in their Universal Holding Cabinet, a food storage appliance that also happens to sound like the subject of a middling episode of "Star Trek."

So maybe having all-day breakfast can turn a quiet shift at McDonald's into "The Bear." But didn't McDonald's say, upon discontinuing the offer, that they were planning to bring it back as soon as possible? Surely they wouldn't just say that for no reason, right? Well, we wouldn't go making reservations for Mother's Day brunch at McDonald's just yet. Enough fast food chains already offer quality breakfasts (including Wendy's, which has our favorite fast food egg sandwich out of every chain) that any benefit McDonald's would receive from the offer would be mitigated, adding another drawback to its return.

If you really want to eat breakfast food at any time of the day, you can always make your way over to a 24-hour diner, although those have admittedly become nearly obsolete in recent years. But then again, depending on where you are, Waffle House could have you covered — even in the middle of a tropical storm, so long as it doesn't get too bad. (They don't have a Waffle House Index at the National Weather Service for nothing.)