What was McDonald's original restaurant name before the brothers shortened it to “McDonald's”?

The brothers' original restaurant was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q before it became McDonald's.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It began as a barbecue drive-in, offering a broad menu and carhop service. The name reflected that original barbecue-centered business rather than the streamlined hamburger restaurant that later became famous.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and reopened it with a much smaller menu and an emphasis on speed, standardization, and self-service. This new approach became the Speedee Service System. The business was then known as McDonald's, a shorter name that better matched its new identity.

The original name is often confused with later terms such as Speedee Service System or McDonald's Famous Hamburgers. Those labels describe later stages of the business, while McDonald's Bar-B-Q identifies the brothers' first 1940 restaurant. This naming change was part of a broader rebranding from a barbecue drive-in to a fast-food operation centered on hamburgers and French fries.