McDonald's opened the Des Plaines restaurant associated with Ray Kroc in 1955.
Ray Kroc opened the restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, after becoming involved with McDonald's as a franchise agent. The location was important because it represented Kroc's expansion of the McDonald brothers' operating model into a broader franchising business.
The Des Plaines site later became closely associated with McDonald's corporate history and was reconstructed as a museum. It is often described as the first McDonald's restaurant opened by Kroc, while the original McDonald brothers' restaurant had opened earlier in San Bernardino in 1940.
That distinction matters in branding history: the 1955 restaurant helped establish the standardized look and operating identity that supported McDonald's national growth, but it was not the company's original restaurant.