The McRib sandwich returns to South Bend area McDonald's, despite 'farewell tour'

Like a legacy rock band, the McRib sandwich has returned to South Bend area McDonald's restaurants for a limited time, despite last year's "Farewell Tour."

Two Mishawaka restaurants — at 2771 Lincoln Way E. and 3520 Bremen Highway — join ones in Walkerton, Elkhart and Goshen in offering the signature pork sandwich that began in 1981 and has been on and off the fast-food restaurant menu for decades.

"It turns out not everyone was ready to say goodbye to the McRib,” McDonald’s said in a news release. McDonald's officials have told various media outlets that not all McDonald's will carry the McRib and that it will only be available for a limited time in restaurants that carry it.

From the USA Today network: Georgia restaurants among select McDonald's locations bringing back the iconic McRib

Janice Wroblewski, general manager of the Lincoln Way East McDonald's in Mishawaka, said her restaurant started selling McRibs on Monday.

"It's awesome!" Wrobleski said when asked about customer reaction to the sandwich's return. "It's like a fan favorite, and they say they're glad it's come back.

"It's an iconic sandwich," she said. "The customers go wild when it comes back."

The restaurants in the greater northern Indiana group will offer the McRib throughout November and into December, Wroblewski said.

Last year, the McRib was eulogized during its "farewell tour," but the limited time offering has begun to appear in select restaurants nationwide. A McRib locator map is available for people to check where they have been seen.

A McRib explained

“The McRib starts with seasoned boneless pork dipped in a tangy BBQ sauce, topped with slivered onions and dill pickles, all served on a toasted homestyle bun,” according to McDonald’s. The boneless pork patty is shaped like a miniature rack of ribs.

According to McDonald’s, the sandwich first appeared on menus in 1981 and made its nationwide debut the following year.

By July 1983, however, the chain had begun withdrawing the pork sandwich from some of its restaurants, according to an article by the L.A. Times/Washington Post News Service published in the former Jacksonville Journal in September 1983. The story began as follows:

"When fast-food industry giant McDonald's Corp. introduced its barbecued pork sandwich 19 months ago, they called it McRib. Now, the product may be on the way to becoming a McFlop."

The McRib eventually came off the menu only to return in 1989. In November 2005, McDonald's announced the farewell tour of the sandwich.

Déjà vu in 2018?: McDonald’s brings back the McRib after a year of retirement

In the following years, McDonald's brought back the sandwich for a limited run, often in late October or early November in select markets.

But after its return in late 2012, the McRib went into semi-retirement again for eight years, until 2020, when McDonald’s brought the sandwich back to help with lagging sales during the pandemic, the Associated Press reported.

Savannah (Ga.) Times-Union deputy managing editor Gary T. Mills contributed to this report.

Email Tribune staff writer Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@sbtinfo.com.

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: McDonald's McRib sandwich returns for limited time