What was McDonald's first restaurant name, used by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940?

Richard and Maurice McDonald first used the name “McDonald's Bar-B-Q” for their restaurant in 1940.

The brothers opened the drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was a barbecue restaurant with a broad menu, and its original identity was different from the streamlined hamburger business that later made the company famous.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and reopened it with a reduced menu centered on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, and soft drinks. This change produced the Speedee Service System and created the operating model that Ray Kroc later expanded through franchising.

“McDonald's Famous Hamburgers” was used after the restaurant's repositioning, so it is not the original 1940 name. The Speedee Service System was a service concept, not the restaurant's name.