Ray Kroc opened McDonald's first corporation-operated restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
The Des Plaines restaurant was the first location opened by McDonald's System, Inc., the company Kroc established as he began expanding the McDonald brothers’ restaurant model. Its design and operation reflected the standardized approach that became central to the McDonald’s identity: a limited menu, repeatable preparation, and recognizable visual presentation.
The site is especially important because it connects the local history of the McDonald brothers with the later national corporation. Kroc did not invent the brothers’ original system, but he developed the business structure and franchise expansion that made it a major American brand.
Des Plaines is sometimes mistakenly identified as the location of the first McDonald’s restaurant altogether. The brothers’ first restaurant opened in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Des Plaines was the first restaurant in Kroc’s corporate expansion, opening fifteen years later.