What was the name of the restaurant founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940?

The restaurant founded by Richard and Maurice McDonald in 1940 was called McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

The brothers opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in May 1940. It was a drive-in barbecue restaurant, reflecting the popular Southern California carhop model of the period. The name emphasized barbecue rather than hamburgers because the original menu centered on a broad selection of grilled foods.

In 1948, the brothers reorganized the business around a faster, simpler self-service system. They closed temporarily, removed most of the menu, and reopened as a hamburger-focused restaurant. This change created the operating model that later attracted Ray Kroc and drove the chain's expansion.

A common mix-up is treating 1940 as the beginning of the modern McDonald's format. The business began that year, but its famous limited-menu, speedy-service identity dates from the 1948 relaunch. The restaurant was also originally written with a possessive apostrophe, as in McDonald's Bar-B-Q.