San Bernardino, California, was home to the first McDonald's restaurant opened by Dick and Mac McDonald.
The brothers opened the restaurant there in 1940, initially operating a drive-in barbecue restaurant. San Bernardino provided the setting in which they tested a more efficient approach to food service. In 1948, they closed temporarily, reduced the menu, removed much of the carhop model, and reopened with counter service and a highly standardized production system.
That operational change became central to McDonald's later branding. The company’s identity came to mean not just hamburgers, but speed, consistency, and recognizable service. Ray Kroc later encountered the brothers’ operation and helped turn the San Bernardino concept into a national franchise system.
The city is sometimes confused with Des Plaines, Illinois, because Des Plaines hosted the first McDonald's restaurant opened by the corporation founded by Kroc in 1955. San Bernardino remains the location associated with the McDonald brothers’ original restaurant.