What name did McDonald's use for its original 1940 restaurant in San Bernardino, California?

McDonald's originally called its 1940 San Bernardino restaurant McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the restaurant in California as a barbecue drive-in. Its menu and identity were built around barbecue foods, car-service dining, and a large staff serving motorists. The brothers later reorganized the business around a much smaller menu and faster counter service.

That 1948 change produced the operating model that became famous after Ray Kroc began franchising McDonald's. The restaurant's early barbecue name is often overlooked because the later brand became associated primarily with hamburgers and the Golden Arches.

The original location was in San Bernardino, not Chicago, and it predates the modern McDonald's corporation and its national advertising system.