What was the name of McDonald’s first restaurant opened by Ray Kroc after he joined the company?

The Des Plaines McDonald’s was the first restaurant opened by Ray Kroc after he joined the company.

Kroc opened the restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955. It became an important symbol of the McDonald’s franchise expansion because Kroc used it to demonstrate the operating model he planned to reproduce across the United States.

The original McDonald brothers’ restaurant in San Bernardino, California, predates Kroc’s Des Plaines location. Kroc did not create the basic restaurant concept from nothing; he became the company’s franchising force and helped expand its standardized system nationally.

The Des Plaines building later became associated with McDonald’s corporate history and was reconstructed as a museum. It is sometimes called the first McDonald’s restaurant, but that wording can cause confusion: the McDonald brothers’ San Bernardino restaurant came earlier, while Des Plaines was Kroc’s first location.