Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
The restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, at 400 North Lee Street. It was Kroc’s first McDonald’s location after he obtained franchising rights from brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald, whose original restaurant was in San Bernardino, California.
The Des Plaines restaurant was important to McDonald’s branding because it became a highly visible model for the company’s standardized restaurant design, menu, service system, and advertising. Kroc’s version helped turn the brothers’ regional operation into a national chain.
A common mix-up is calling the Des Plaines restaurant the first McDonald’s restaurant of any kind. The brothers had opened their San Bernardino restaurant years earlier, in 1948. Des Plaines was the first McDonald’s franchise opened by Kroc and the location that helped launch the corporation’s rapid expansion.