What was McDonald’s original name when Dick and Mac McDonald opened their first restaurant in 1940?

McDonald’s original name was McDonald’s Bar-B-Q when Dick and Mac McDonald opened their first restaurant in 1940.

The brothers opened the drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. Its menu initially focused on barbecue food, served through a carhop-style operation. The business name used the family surname and the barbecue specialty directly.

In 1948, the brothers reorganized the restaurant around a faster, smaller menu centered on hamburgers, fries, and milkshakes. They called the new operation the Speedee Service System, named after its early chef mascot, Speedee.

A common mix-up is treating McDonald’s as a hamburger-only business from its beginning. The restaurant’s first identity was instead a barbecue drive-in, and the later streamlined service model created the foundation for the brand that Ray Kroc eventually expanded internationally.