McDonald’s first used the shorter restaurant name “McDonald’s” without “Bar-B-Q” in 1948.
Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940 as McDonald’s Bar-B-Q. That business initially offered a broad barbecue menu and used carhop service, reflecting the dominant restaurant format of the period.
In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily, redesigned its operation, and reopened it as a self-service hamburger restaurant. The simplified branding accompanied the new Speedee Service System, which emphasized a limited menu, assembly-line preparation, and faster service.
The 1948 change should not be confused with Ray Kroc’s arrival in 1954 or the opening of the first McDonald’s franchise in 1955. Those later events expanded and standardized a brand whose shorter name had already been established.