Where did Ray Kroc open the first McDonald’s restaurant he operated as a franchise?

Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald’s restaurant he operated as a franchise in Des Plaines, Illinois.

The restaurant opened in 1955 at 400 North Lee Street. Kroc had become interested in the McDonald brothers’ fast-service restaurant after supplying them with multiple-mixer milkshake machines, and he obtained the rights to franchise their concept.

The Des Plaines restaurant helped establish the visual and operating model that Kroc would expand nationally. It later became a museum, although the original building was demolished and a reconstruction was created on the site.

San Bernardino was the location of the McDonald brothers’ original restaurant, while Oak Brook later became McDonald’s corporate headquarters. Those places are important to the company’s history but do not answer this specific franchise question.