Rudy Miller, at 89 years old, sat Tuesday evening in a booth near the entrance to the McDonald’s on Center Street, watching a young man tap his food order into a large screen in the lobby. 

Miller, whose Miller Management Co. owns the Center Street McDonald’s, opened his first area McDonald’s in 1982, when he was a much younger man, in Abbeville.

“That store opened on Oct. 28, 1982; the grand opening was on November 14,” his son, Larry Miller — who followed his father’s footsteps, and is a McDonald’s franchisee and MMC partner — said, matter-of-factly. 

Asked about the technology at that first location, the elder Miller simply said, “There was none.” 

“The menus were written out by hand, and at the counter they wrote your order down on paper,” he said. 

The Millers, who now own eight area McDonald’s, were at the Center Street location for the roll out of several new, state-of-the-art, self-order kiosks — the first of their kind in the area. 

Around the country, said the younger Miller, McDonald’s has rolled out the new kiosks in 3-4,000 stores, with plans to have them installed in each of the 15,000 or so stores across the country by Jan. 1, 2020. 

The new kiosks weren’t the only reason the staff, management and owners gathered at the Center Street location Tuesday, but Rudy Miller did not know that. Soon he was called into the children’s play area, where staff, management and friends had gathered.

“We’re here to move into the future, but we’re also here to recognize the past,” said Kevin Geautreaux, director of operations for Miller Management Co., standing on a chair to address the packed room.

“Rudy has been here for 89 years and 364 days,” he said, “so, we’re going to sing him a song.” 

The crowd, gathered around the children’s play structure, burst into “Happy Birthday,” as a blast of confetti exploded, puncturing a ceiling tile before raining down streams of rainbow-colored tissue paper. Miller would be 90 at midnight.

He smiled, seemingly stunned, as his daughter-in-law entered the room behind him, holding a large, square cake covered in candles. 

Miller came to Abbeville from his native Chicago in May of 1982, after serving in the Navy and then in the Marines. He’d first gone to Mobile but, McDonald’s having no franchise opportunities there, he seized an opportunity to open one in Abbeville. 

“I thought it was the biggest mistake of my life. I didn’t think I’d last a year,” he said. “But after that first year, things went well. Now, I wouldn’t leave here for anything.” 

He remembers when the first computer registers went in. Now, at several booths, large LCD screens offer “Touch 2 Play” options to keep patrons entertained while eating. The drive-through has been expanded from one to two lanes, with digital cameras outside that let employees keep track of the line. There is a mobile app that allows patrons to pre-order their meal from their cellphones, receiving it curbside or at the counter. 

The new kiosks are just the latest evolution in what the younger Miller calls a “holistic approach” to “changing the whole company.” 

“This allows us an increased capacity,” he said. “No one likes standing in line. Now we have multiple order points. The kiosk gives four ordering points at all times, and there’s always someone at the counter. The sooner we get the order the sooner we’re working on it. And the kiosk knows your table tent number, which you take with you, which has GPS in it. So when you’re order is up, we exactly where in the store you are and take it to you — we’ll have table-side service now. We’re taking it up a notch,” he said.

“I love it. I think it’s going to be wonderful,” said Area Manager Kandi Durand, who was ordering from the kiosk with gift cards the staff were given to celebrate the new additions — and to practice using them. 

“I think it will really help the customer pick out their food and get it a lot faster. It’s just awesome,” she said.

And, said Miller, it’s a misconception to think the new kiosks will eliminate jobs. 

Indeed, an employee was at that moment guiding a customer through using the new kiosk. That new position, he said, is called a Guest Experience Leader. And the increased capacity, he said, will mean more help needed in the kitchen. McDonald’s also has an exclusive agreement with UberEats to deliver food to customers’ homes, once that company expands to New Iberia. Its local competitor, Waitr, in the meantime, may even fill in the gap until then. 

“This is actually creating new jobs. Our payroll will probably actually go up,” he said.

“I can’t believe how much it’s all changed,” the elder Miller said, in the midst of it all. 

If things go according to plan, the Miller clan will shepherd in future changes hardly fathomable now. Haley Miller — daughter of Larry, granddaughter of Rudy — is currently in training to become an owner operator herself. After earning a BA in psychology from Tulane, she is now completing an MBA and is finishing training at Hamburger University, the 130,000-square-foot McDonald’s training facility in Oak Brook, Illinois — near Chicago, coincidentally, where Rudy grew up. 

“She’ll have a bachelors in Hamburgerology,” Larry said. “I’m serious — it’s accredited.”