McDonald's original 1940 restaurant name was McDonald's Bar-B-Q.
Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It began as a drive-in barbecue restaurant offering a broad menu, including barbecue items, rather than as the highly streamlined hamburger operation people now associate with McDonald's.
The brothers later reorganized the business around a smaller menu and faster production system. In 1948 they reopened with a self-service format focused on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes, and soft drinks. That change created the operational identity that later franchisees would replicate.
The name is often confused with later versions such as “McDonald's Famous Hamburgers.” The original barbecue name belongs to the 1940 opening period, while the simplified hamburger concept emerged after the brothers changed their business model.