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

Before becoming the modern McDonald's 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 began as a drive-in barbecue restaurant offering a broad menu, rather than the highly standardized hamburger operation associated with the later McDonald's brand.

The brothers changed direction in 1948 by streamlining the menu and emphasizing hamburgers, fries, and fast service. That reorganization created the operating model that later attracted Ray Kroc and became the foundation of McDonald's global branding.

People often jump straight to the Golden Arches or the Speedee mascot when discussing the company's origins. Those symbols belong to later stages of the brand story; the original business name reflected its barbecue-focused beginning.