A food fight between one current and one former Lido Island resident kicked off a week ago, because, of all things, the beverage options at McDonald’s.
Greg Creed, the former CEO of Irvine’s Taco Bell and later the head of its parent company Yum Brands (NYSE: YUM), took to LinkedIn this month to critique a new energy-fueled beverage line at McDonald’s, which features a Red Bull collaboration.
“I get that beverages are hot right now and they are definitely very profitable but 6-8 new drinks adds a lot of operational complexity but the bigger point is what’s distinctively ‘McDonalds’ about these drinks,” Creed wrote.
“The answer is I can’t think of anything that is, any brand could have come up with these flavors.”
Creed pointed to Taco Bell’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast as a better collaboration.
Enter Palmer Luckey, Anduril Industries founder and frequent online agitator.
“Greg is a bitter, used-up old man who spends all his time taking pot shots at people still doing something with their lives,” Luckey, who defended the McDonald’s collab, replied on social media.
“He used to live down the street from me and was so mad about me ruining his weekend by hosting the President at my house,” added Luckey, along with other insults. Creed, who retired from Yum Brands near the end of 2019, sold his Lido Island home four years ago for a reported $11.5 million.
UCLA’s football team is making Orange County their home away from home.
The Bruins recently held a set of summer practices at the sports complex at Irvine’s Great Park, under the watch of new head coach Bob Chesney.
The experience “was awesome,” Chesney told local media. “We came down to an alumni event earlier at one of our alums’ houses over here in Newport Beach and it was unbelievable. The amount of people down in this area that were supportive of this program is great.”
11-year NFL veteran Derek Carr, a Newport Beach resident, this month joined the Bruins as a special advisor to the head coach.
There are signs of hope for the future of Hotel Laguna. See last week’s print edition for Joseph Pimental’s exclusive on the emergence of a new investor for the historic beachfront property.
Other area hospitality execs are hoping for the best after years of legal limbo.
“It literally breaks my heart, and that of every local resident, to see this old girl languish like she has over the last several years,” says Mark Christy, owner of The Ranch at Laguna Beach.
“In many ways, this building is a symbol of Laguna’s unique heritage, and it should be one of the most iconic boutique hotels in all of California.”
Bob Alter leaves behind a long legacy in the hotel industry, and in OC, see this page for more on the late founder of Sunstone Hotel Investors
(NYSE: SHO).
Business Journal Publisher Richard Reisman and Bob Alter, were both brought into the California Coast Chapter of YPO by Bob Olson around the same time in the 90s.
Reisman shares that Alter “was among his favorite humans.”