Why Chicago Is The True Birthplace Of McDonald's

It is pretty well known that the first McDonald's was opened in Southern California, but if you look at what McDonald's would grow to symbolize, there is a strong argument to be made it was not really born until it opened near Chicago in 1955. The original McDonald's wasn't even a hamburger stand; it was a barbecue restaurant opened by the McDonald brothers in San Bernardino, California. It was only eight years later that they changed the format of the restaurant to quick-service and started focusing on burgers. The brothers experimented with new, highly efficient forms of production and service that would become one of the backbones of the McDonald's experience, but the true turning point came when Ray Kroc dropped by in 1954.

The story of how Kroc took over McDonald's is dramatic enough that it got a whole movie, "The Founder" starring Michael Keaton, but he was the one who turned McDonald's into the icon it is today. As a salesperson for the milkshake machines the brothers were using, Kroc saw the massive potential in McDonald's and became an early franchisee. It was Kroc who founded McDonald's System, Inc., the company that would become the modern corporation, when he opened his first McDonald's in Des Plaines, Illinois, in 1955. It was this location that would become the template for the company's rapid expansion and success, and to this day McDonald's still refers to it as the "first McDonald's." Plus, it was Kroc who would soon become the face of the company.

While the McDonald's in San Bernardino might have been the first hamburger-slinging McDonald's, almost everything else about the company ended up coming from Chicago. The Des Plaines location was the first to use the red and white color scheme on the building, and was one of the first McDonald's to use the now iconic "golden arches," which were conceived by Dick McDonald.

What really set Kroc's McDonald's operation outside Chicago apart from the McDonald brothers' was the ambition of the business. Kroc had a vision of thousands of McDonald's franchises opening up across the country and wanted to expand rapidly. The McDonalds were not opposed to franchising — they had let Kroc and a few other people do it — but they were busy running their restaurant and were not interested in the massive scale Kroc was. The brothers had also saddled each franchisee with strict requirements that mandated they approve every small change to each McDonald's, further stifling Kroc's ability to expand. As Kroc's sales grew, the ambitious Chicago McDonald's business chafed under the more laid-back California McDonald's. This is what led Ray Kroc to buy out the McDonald brothers as the owner of the company in 1961, paying them $2.7 million for all rights to the brand and total control over all McDonald's locations. Kroc's franchise vision would be the basis of McDonald's success, and today McDonald's corporate headquarters is located in Chicago's West Loop.

While Chicago officially became the home of McDonald's when Kroc took over in 1961, it was a decision made there a few years prior that ended up being the secret to McDonald's becoming the burger behemoth. In 1956 Kroc was struggling to make money as he rapidly expanded local franchises. It was then that Barry Sonneborn, who would go on to be McDonald's CFO for a decade, suggested that Kroc could make more money by buying the land that franchisees built their restaurants on and forcing them to lease the land from McDonald's corporate. It is a decision that turbocharged Kroc's profits and is credited with providing the guaranteed revenue stream that built an empire.

So much more also started in Chicago. Kroc developed the franchise model that gave local operators more leeway, but also standardized operating procedures through McDonald's now famous Hamburger University. Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1963, and the Big Mac hit McDonald's menus in 1968. By then it was fully formed as the business that would take over the country. The ornery Kroc also opened a McDonald's down the road from the McDonald brothers' stand, which they had been allowed to continue operating, driving them out of business. The brothers deserve the lion's share of the credit for the innovative fast food concept that McDonald's grew from, but McDonald's truly became the business, the brand, and the restaurant we know today in the suburbs of Chicago.