What was the original name of the McDonald's restaurant before it became a famous hamburger chain?

The original name of the McDonald's restaurant was McDonald's Bar-B-Q.

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was a barbecue drive-in offering a broader menu than the streamlined hamburger operation that later made the company famous.

In 1948, the brothers reorganized the business around a limited menu and faster preparation system. They reopened as a self-service hamburger restaurant, helping establish the operating model that later franchisee Ray Kroc expanded across the United States.

The early barbecue name is easy to overlook because McDonald's is now associated worldwide with hamburgers, fries, and the Golden Arches. The name change reflects a major shift in business strategy: from a traditional drive-in menu to a standardized quick-service format built for speed and repeatable operations.