What was the name of McDonald's original 1940 restaurant before it became known mainly for hamburgers?

McDonald's original 1940 restaurant was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened the restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. Its original menu centered on barbecue items, with a large selection of foods served by carhops. This was a very different business model from the limited-service hamburger chain that McDonald's later became.

In 1948, the brothers reorganized the restaurant around a much smaller menu and faster preparation. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, and milkshakes became central, while the barbecue-focused identity disappeared. The change helped create the Speedee Service System, an important step in modern fast-food branding and operations.

A common mix-up is confusing the original barbecue name with the later corporate brand. The restaurant did not begin as a hamburger-only operation, and Ray Kroc was not one of its original founders. Kroc later expanded the McDonald's system nationally.