The McDonald brothers originally operated under the name McDonald’s Bar-B-Q.
Maurice and Richard McDonald opened their San Bernardino drive-in restaurant in 1940 with a barbecue-focused menu. The business used carhops and offered a wider range of food than the highly standardized hamburger operation that later defined McDonald’s. Its name reflected that earlier barbecue identity.
In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant for a major redesign. They reopened with a smaller menu centered on hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, and soft drinks. The new counter-service model was called the Speedee Service System and emphasized speed, consistency, and lower prices.
The name is sometimes confused with later branding because “McDonald’s” eventually became the dominant corporate identity. The transition from a barbecue drive-in to a streamlined hamburger restaurant was more important to the brand’s development than the name alone. It created the operating model that later franchise expansion made famous.