A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast-food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Raymond Albert Kroc was an American businessman. He purchased the fast food company McDonald's in 1961 from the McDonald brothers and was its CEO from 1967 to 1973. Kroc is credited with the global expansion of McDonald's, turning it into the most successful fast food corporation in the world by revenue.
Joan Beverly Kroc, also known as Joni, was an American philanthropist and third wife of McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.
The Golden Arches are the symbol of McDonald's, the global fast food restaurant chain. Originally, real arches were part of the restaurant design. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and in the current Golden Arches logo, introduced 1968, resembling an "M" for "McDonald's". They are widely regarded to be one of the most recognizable logos in the world.
Frederick Leo Turner was an American restaurant industry executive, chair and CEO of McDonald's. He is credited with helping to massively expand McDonald's, introducing new meals and setting service standards for the company and its employees.
Richard McDonald and Maurice McDonald, collectively known as the McDonald Brothers, were American entrepreneurs who founded the fast food company McDonald's.
A carhop is a waiter or waitress who brings fast food to people in their cars at drive-in restaurants. Carhops usually work on foot but sometimes use roller skates, as depicted in movies such as American Graffiti and television shows such as Happy Days. Carhops have long been associated with hot rods and 1950s pop culture.
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and, in 1961, bought out the McDonald brothers. Previously headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, it moved to nearby Chicago in June 2018. McDonald's is also a real estate company through its ownership of around 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land.
The American fast-food restaurant chain McDonald's was founded in 1940 by the McDonald brothers, Richard and Maurice, and has since grown to the world's largest restaurant chain by revenue. The McDonald brothers began the business in San Bernardino, California where the brothers set out to sell their barbecue. However, burgers were more popular with the public and the business model switched to a carhop drive-in style of restaurant. From the 1940s to the mid 1950s, the brothers expanded their business, even incorporating the golden arches, until Ray Kroc turned their small business into the well-known and commercially successful business that it is today. Kroc convinced the brothers to move into a more self-serve business model and to expand nationwide.
Sandy's was a chain of American fast-food restaurants begun in 1956 by four entrepreneurs from Kewanee, Illinois: Gus "Brick" Lundberg, Robert C. Wenger, Paul White and W. K. Davidson. Sandy's was the ancestor of the midwestern franchises of the Hardee's restaurant chain.
San Bernardino, California, was named in 1810.
The McDonald's Chicago Flagship is a flagship McDonald's restaurant located in Chicago.
Geri's Hamburgers was a fast food restaurant chain in northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, United States. Geri's started sometime in 1962 and was modeled largely after the early McDonald's style restaurants at the time. One of the original owners of Geri's was a former vice president for McDonald's. Geri's restaurants, at least in the early days, had little or no inside seating, and were geared towards fast take-out service. In fact the cartoon icon used by Geri's on its marquee was very similar to the "Mr. Speedee" used by McDonald's, and even closer to the later McDonald's characters such as Mayor McCheese, being in the form of a hamburger with eyes, and arms and legs coming from the sides and bottom of the bun. There were at least 13 Geri's restaurants by 1980. Red, blue and white were the main exterior colors, often in the form of tiles.
Juan Pollo is a Mexican-style rotisserie chicken restaurant chain headquartered in San Bernardino, California founded in 1984 by Albert Okura. Its restaurants are located mostly in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, with other locations in Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.
June Martino was an American businesswoman who became Ray Kroc's bookkeeper in 1948 and ultimately rose to Corporate Secretary, Treasurer, Director and part-owner of McDonald's Corporation.
The McDonald's Sign, also known as McDonald's Store #433 Sign, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States, is one of only a few surviving examples of a single-arch McDonald's sign. The sign was erected in 1962 and remained at its original location until 2007. That year, McDonald's Store #433 moved and the sign was renovated and moved to the new location. The McDonald's sign was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2006.
The oldest McDonald's restaurant that is still in business operation is a drive-up hamburger stand at 10207 Lakewood Boulevard at Florence Avenue in Downey, California, United States. Opened on August 18, 1953, it is the third McDonald's restaurant outlet to be opened and is the second restaurant franchised by Richard and Maurice McDonald, before the involvement of Ray Kroc in the company. The outlet still retains the original standardized Golden Arches façade design and is one of Downey's main tourist attractions. Along with its sign, it was deemed eligible for addition to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, although it was not added at the time because the owner objected.
Albert Okura was an American businessman who was the founder and CEO of the Juan Pollo restaurant chain in Southern California. He was also a philanthropist and was active in the revitalization of Historic Route 66. In 2005, Okura purchased the town of Amboy, California, which is located along Route 66. The corporate headquarters for the Juan Pollo chain now sits on the original location of the first McDonald's restaurant where Okura created and hosted a museum, preserving artifacts and memorabilia about the landmark.
The Founder is a 2016 American biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock and written by Robert Siegel. Starring Michael Keaton as businessman Ray Kroc, the film depicts the story of his creation of the McDonald's fast-food restaurant chain, which eventually involved forcing out the company's original founders to take control with conniving ruthlessness. Nick Offerman and John Carroll Lynch co-star as McDonald's founders Richard and Maurice McDonald, alongside Linda Cardellini as Ray Kroc's third wife Joan Smith, and B. J. Novak as McDonald's president and chief executive Harry J. Sonneborn.
