The McDonald brothers established the restaurant that became McDonald's in San Bernardino, California.
Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant business there in 1940. After operating an earlier drive-in format, they redesigned the restaurant and introduced a faster, more standardized service model in 1948. That change laid the foundation for the McDonald's brand.
San Bernardino is sometimes confused with Des Plaines, Illinois, where Ray Kroc opened an early McDonald's franchise restaurant in 1955. The two locations have different roles in the company's history: San Bernardino was the McDonald brothers' original base, while Des Plaines became an important site in Kroc's expansion of the chain.
The California restaurant's legacy includes the Speedee Service System and the streamlined menu that influenced later fast-food operations. The site is now associated with a museum and historical displays about the origins of McDonald's.