What wording appeared in the logo of the restaurant opened by the McDonald brothers in 1940, before the Golden Arches era?

The McDonald brothers’ first restaurant logo used the wording “McDonald’s Famous Barbecue.”

Richard and Maurice McDonald opened their first restaurant in San Bernardino, California, in 1940. It was initially a barbecue restaurant with a broad menu, years before the company became internationally associated with hamburgers, fries, the Golden Arches, and Ronald McDonald.

In 1948, the brothers reorganized the business around a limited menu and speedy counter service. That change shifted the restaurant toward hamburgers, milkshakes, and fries and helped establish the operating model that later attracted Ray Kroc. The earlier barbecue identity therefore belongs to the company’s pre-hamburger branding period.

The wording is easy to confuse with “Speedee Service System,” which described the later streamlined service method, or with the Golden Arches, which became central to McDonald’s visual identity in the 1950s and 1960s. “McDonald’s Famous Barbecue” refers specifically to the original restaurant-era branding.