What was the name of McDonald's restaurant before it became McDonald's?

The 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 was a drive-in barbecue restaurant, and the original name reflected that menu and service model.

In 1948, the brothers closed the restaurant temporarily and reorganized it around a smaller menu and faster preparation. The redesigned business became the McDonald's hamburger restaurant associated with the Speedee Service System.

The earlier barbecue name is important because the company did not begin as the highly standardized hamburger chain later developed by Ray Kroc. The name “McDonald's” remained, while the barbecue-focused identity gave way to the faster, hamburger-centered format.