What was the name of the McDonald’s restaurant before it became a hamburger-focused fast-food chain?

Before becoming a hamburger-focused fast-food chain, the restaurant was called McDonald’s Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was a drive-in barbecue restaurant with a much broader menu and a carhop service model. The name “McDonald’s Bar-B-Q” reflected that original business rather than the simplified identity the company later adopted.

In 1948, the brothers temporarily closed the restaurant and reorganized it around a smaller menu, faster preparation, and self-service. Hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, milkshakes, and soft drinks became central to the new concept.

The change is important in branding history because McDonald’s did not begin with the streamlined fast-food identity now associated with its name. Its early name and menu belonged to a conventional American drive-in restaurant.