Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955.
The restaurant opened on April 15, 1955, at 400 North Lee Street. Kroc had become interested in the McDonald brothers' efficient restaurant after supplying them with Multimixers and later became their franchise agent. His Des Plaines location became a model for the national expansion he organized.
The building used the dramatic red-and-white design and Golden Arches associated with early McDonald's restaurants. A reconstruction later operated as a museum, preserving the site as an important part of company history.
Des Plaines was not the brothers' first restaurant and was not the first McDonald's franchise anywhere. The brothers' original operation was in San Bernardino, and the first franchise restaurant opened in Phoenix in 1953. Des Plaines is specifically Kroc's first McDonald's location.