What was McDonald’s restaurant called before it was shortened to “McDonald’s” in 1948?

Before it was shortened to “McDonald’s” in 1948, the restaurant was called McDonald’s Bar-B-Q.

Maurice and Richard McDonald opened their original drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It initially served a broad barbecue-focused menu. In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily, redesigned the operation, and reopened with a smaller menu centered on hamburgers, fries, and beverages.

That 1948 change was more than a menu revision: it created the foundation for the Speedee Service System and the fast-food model later expanded through franchising. The shorter name matched the streamlined concept and became the basis of the global brand.

The restaurant’s earlier name is sometimes omitted from simplified company histories, which can make it seem as though McDonald’s began immediately as a hamburger chain. Its barbecue-drive-in phase came first.