Speedy service restaurant the two brothers owned and ran a hot dog stand after a few years of saving they were then able to open their first brick-and-mortar restaurant in californ San Bernardino in 1940 the brothers called This original car hop Drive-In McDonald's famous barbecue and their first menu featured their famous barbecued beef ham and pork while burgers were listed beneath those highlighted barbecue selections so too were tamali cheesy french fries chili hamburger steaks and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches add in some people magazines of the cashier and that's a grocery store friend as the 40s dragged on the brothers noticed that almost all of their profits came not from their featured barbecue but from their burgers so in 1948 they closed down their original operation to start fresh with a paired down menu that sold only
Burgers potato chips ice cream apple pie coffee and soda it didn't take long for them to switch out the chips for fries and heading into the 1950s the McDonald's brothers were ready to turn their streamline menu into a whole new brand in 1953 the McDonald Brothers opened their first ever Speedy service location in Phoenix Arizona this location brought with it an allnew building style designed specifically for an assembly line like kitchen process it likewise featured the Brand's first ever set of golden arches most important though was the food this location's nine item menu advertised hamburgers cheeseburgers french fries and malt shakes along with five different beverages including coffee Coke root beer milk and a mysterious orange drink and there's nothing more appealing in a fast food restaurant than a mystery shortly after as The Story Goes traveling milkshake machine salesman Ray Croc saw what the
McDonald's brothers were up to and opened a McDonald's location of his own into Plains Illinois just 2 years later for its grand opening this location touted in advertisements that the McDonald's brand had already sold over 15 million hamburgers aali that is continued to this very day and nothing controversial with Ray Croc ever happened again in 1963 McDonald's tried to cater to its Catholic customers fasting during during Lent by making their first ever beefless Burger the hola Burger featuring two slices of cheese and a thick slice of pineapple between two buns ooh wonder if you can dip it in the mystery orange drink meanwhile in Ohio McDonald's franchisee Lou Gro started testing out his own beefless sandwich made from fish and he took his idea all the way to
1960s Innovations and Challenges in McDonald's Menu Expansion
Ray Croc himself reportedly Ray Croc loved the hola burger and thought fish would only stink up his restaurants still he made a deal with groan if Gran's fish sandwiches outsold Croc's beloved hul Burgers Cron's idea would find itself a place on the Nationwide menu the hulger was thereafter decimated by the arrival of the fileo fish sandwich and in 1965 this fishy witch became the Brand's first new permanent menu item Croc got rocked this decade also saw the 1964 introduction of the McDouble hamburger which only lasted until 1967 when it was pulled from the menu for the next 30 Years McDonald's also tried to fight off the fast food market gains made by the rapidly growing ARB used by in 1968 releasing a roast beef sandwich of their own even though this new sandwich sold well its creation required every
McDonald's location to purchase costly new meat slicers an extra expense that made the roast beef sandwich a short-lived clapback to the big brown hat still the 1960s had one more trick up its sleeve for the burgeoning McDonald's Empire in 1967 McDonald's franchisee Jim dagati made the world's first Big Mac cheeseburgers and he sold them at his Uniontown Pennsylvania location for $45 cents a pop the Big Mac proves such a hit that by the very next year delegat's creation got its National roll out making the Keystone State created Big Mac a keystone of the McDonald's [Music] franchise the 1970s kicked off with California franchisee
Al bernardin's 1971 invention of the quarter founder with cheese apparently Bernardin thought that McDonald's other menu options were too bready and he wanted a burger that put meat front and center this heroic meat forward option was so successful that in 1973 the quarter pounder was added to the National menu meanwhile in 1972 another California franchisee herb Peterson was set to make an even bigger Splash in response to the demands of his early Rising customers that year Peterson's invention a little thing called The Egg McMuffin entered test markets at 63 cents of sandwich it spent 3 years coming and going from select locations before finally getting its own National release in 197 5 and just 2 years later
Early Innovations and Challenges in McDonald's Menu Development (1970s-1980s)
McDonald's launched its first ever breakfast menu this original menu while keeping the Egg McMuffin front and center featured Hot Cakes scrambled eggs sausage hash browns and danishes that same year Guatemala franchisee Yolanda Fernandez de cofino began to make the company's first ever children's menu while Fernandez de cino's original menu Ronald featured a burger a small fry and a sunde its first US interation which launched nationally in 1979 also contained keer cookies a crackerjack surprise toy and a soda instead of a sunde still not all was groovy in 1970s McDonald Land for a brief time McDonald sold the short-lived onion nugget and the reviled chopped beef steak sandwich along with the mcpizza which would come and go from the menu like the dad in that Cats in the Cradle song in the late 1970s after the
US saw Nationwide decline in beef sales McDonald's brought on famed Chef Renee Arend to spice up their menu with some beefless Alternatives and one of Arn's first major contributions to the McDonald's menu was the ever luxurious mcreb the mcreb lasted from 1981 to 1985 before disappearing till 1989 when it then hung around until 2005 in the years since it's come and gone like a pork filed Breeze easy to enjoy impossible to contain still our end had a few more tricks up his sleeve while McDonald's didn't seem to care for his chicken pot pie idea they did in 1980 move forward with his idea for a crispy chicken sandwich the
McChicken but in an unartistic strikeout for the chef this original McChicken proved to be a total flop luckily for the company they already had something far bigger cooking on the back burner and after 4 years of testing it was finally ready for its National debut thus in 1983 the Chicken McNugget became yet another enduring staple of the McDonald's menu the McNuggets arrival booted the McChicken from the menu menu which was resurrected in 1988 and has ever since lived in the tiny McNuggets far-reaching Shadow shortly after the
McDonald's Menu Innovations and Challenges in the 1980s and 1990s
McNuggets arrival McDonald's also tried their hand at lettuce and tomatoes which historically had turned fast food buns into wet mush their solution to make a bisected styrofoam container capable of holding buns and a meat Patty on one side and lettuce tomato and pickles on the other they called it the MC DLT and this build it-yourself Burger lasted 3 years on the menu before customers got tired of doing all that extra labor just to eat a sandwich also shortlived was the cheddar melt which dropped Nationwide in 1988 and featured a beef patty grilled onions and a creamy cheddar cheese on a ryn the cheddar melt performed terribly though lasting less than a year the80s also saw the introduction of McDonald's first ever salads which gave those lettuce and tomato munchers something else to chew on all the way until the covid-19 pandemic showed them the door the 9s were strange time for
McDonald's as they were for many of us aside from the 1991 successful introduction of the breakfast burrito and the 1998's wide release of the McFlurry the company's corporate heads seemed to throw as much as they could against those red and white tiled walls but nothing seemed to stick the company kicked off 1990 with the introduction of Mighty Wings which were just chicken wings with spicy breading Mighty Wings proved relatively successful and they lasted almost a decade and a half before being pulled from restaurants for good side from a brief Resurgence in 2013 then as the early '90s kicked into gear McDonald's came out with a whole assortment of doomed from the start menu items including chicken fajitas catfish sandwiches pasta
Hot Pocket like McStuffins and The Delectable mobster during this time to attract a more healthc conscious crowd a lowfat burger called the McAn Deluxe also came out making it all the way to the early 2000s before also being pulled for good opposite the mle deluxe was McDonald's now Infamous super size option which allowed customers to order a larger than large size until 2004 right around the time a certain movie came out the 9s second half then saw the Colossal $200 million marketing failure known as the arch Deluxe the arch Deluxe was essentially a fancy Quarter Pounder on a potato bun meant to launch a new premium
Menu Evolution Through the Years: From Discontinued Burgers to Modern Innovations
Burger lineup advertised specifically for adults after lukewarm sales though it was discontinued in the year 2000 McDonald's kicked off the New Millennium with the introduction of their fruit and yogurt parfaits while these parfit would last like the salads before them all the way until the covid-19 pandemic other items debuted in the early as would fail to launch these included the MC Philly cheese steak and the chicken flatbread along with corn dogs and the always kinetic mix salad shakers which was let's be honest here just a salad in a cup then 2002 saw the creation of the now defunct dollar menu while 2003 saw the introduction of one of the McDonald's newest Mainstays the sweet and savory McGriddle as the decade wore on the company also released the onag again off-again chicken selects the sometimes resurrected snack wraps the short-lived but popular mcskillet burritos and the Southern
Style Chicken Sandwich which came back in 2019 under a new MC Krispy identity then at the height of the ODS McDonald's renovated their us restaurants to At Last be capable of serving their already decades old International MC Cafe lineup of lattes mochas espressos and cappuccinos around this time the company once again tried its hand at a premium Burger this time they called it the Angus burger and a whole Angus lineup would live out nearly 4 years of Premium status on the McDonald's menu before ultimately getting pulled in the 2010s McDonald's introduced all day breakfast their short-lived buttermilk chicken tenders and a lineup of bacon centered products including cheesy bacon fries the quarter pounder bacon and the
Big Mac bacon all the while to maintain a profit the company's dollar menu had to become the dollar menu and more which then eventually turned into mCP 2 before settling into its current variation the $1 $2 $3 menu which makes you sound like an Auctioneer with the 2020 onset of the covid-19 pandemic McDonald's had to scale back its operations many fan favorites were temporarily cut from the roster including all day breakfast their lineup of salads and grilled chicken sandwiches and a variety of other more cumbersome menu items items over time many of these items have made their triumphant return While others like the company's salads and their snack wraps evolved into something entirely new like a Pokémon which have been known to appear at McDonald's so what do you think which McDonald's menu era was your favorite let us know in the comments below
| McDonald's Menu Evolution | Description |
|---|---|
| 1940s - Original BBQ Menu | Started with barbecued beef, ham, pork, tamales, cheesy french fries, chili, hamburger steaks, and PB&J sandwiches. Shifted focus to burgers due to profitability. |
| 1948 - Streamlined Menu | After closing original BBQ operation, menu simplified to burgers, fries (replacing chips), ice cream, apple pie, coffee, and soda. Fries became a staple. |
| 1950s - Speedy Service Era | Introduced assembly-line kitchen process with the first "Speedy Service" location in Phoenix, AZ featuring hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, malt shakes, coffee, Coke, root beer, milk, and an orange drink. |
| 1955 - Ray Kroc's Influence | Ray Kroc opened his first McDonald's in Illinois, promoting burgers heavily. |
| 1960s - Innovation and Expansion | Introduced the Filet-O-Fish (1965), Big Mac (1967), attempted roast beef sandwich (1968), and other menu experiments like the Hula Burger (1963). Big Mac became a national hit. |
| 1970s - Iconic Offerings | Introduced the Quarter Pounder with Cheese (1971), Egg McMuffin (1972), and expanded into breakfast items, hot cakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, and danishes (1977). Also tested short-lived items like the Onion Nuggets and Chopped Beef Steak Sandwich. |
| 1980s - McRib and Chicken Nuggets | McRib introduced by Chef René Arend (1981), Chicken McNuggets debuted (1983), briefly introduced the McDLT and Cheddar Melt. McRib became a periodic menu item. |
| 1990s - Diversification and Decline of Healthier Options | Introduced Mighty Wings (1990), Chicken McNugget variations, failed menu items like McPizza, McStuffins, and Arch Deluxe (1996). Experimented with health-conscious options like McLean Deluxe. Super Size option introduced and later phased out (2004). |
| 2000s - New Millennium Offerings | Introduced Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits (2000), Dollar Menu (2002), McGriddles (2003), premium Angus Burger lineup (2009). Expanded into coffee with McCafé lineup (2008). |
| 2010s - All Day Breakfast and Beyond | All Day Breakfast launch (2015), Buttermilk Chicken Tenders, Bacon-centric items like Cheesy Bacon Fries, Quarter Pounder Bacon, Big Mac Bacon. Dollar Menu evolves into $1 $2 $3 Dollar Menu (2018). Continued adaptation to changing consumer tastes and health trends. |
| 2020s - COVID-19 Impact and Menu Simplification | COVID-19 pandemic necessitated menu simplification (2020) with temporary removal of All Day Breakfast, salads, grilled chicken sandwiches, and other cumbersome items. Gradual return and evolution of menu items to meet consumer demand. |
FAQS - McDonald's Menu History
1. What was on the original McDonald's menu?
The original McDonald's menu in the 1940s featured barbecued beef, ham, and pork. Over time, the brothers Maurice and Richard McDonald streamlined it to focus on burgers, fries, apple pie, coffee, and soda by 1948.
2. When did McDonald's introduce the Big Mac?
The Big Mac was invented in 1967 by McDonald's franchisee Jim Delligatti in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. It quickly became a national hit and a cornerstone of the McDonald's menu.
3. What was the McDLT?
The McDLT was a McDonald's burger introduced in the 1980s. It featured a compartmentalized container that kept the hot beef patty separate from the cool lettuce and tomato until it was assembled, aiming to maintain freshness.
4. What were some failed McDonald's menu items?
McDonald's has had its share of unsuccessful items over the years, including the Hula Burger (with a slice of pineapple), McPizza, McLean Deluxe (a low-fat burger), and the Arch Deluxe (a premium burger aimed at adults).
5. When did McDonald's introduce the Chicken McNuggets?
Chicken McNuggets were introduced in 1983 and quickly became a popular menu item. They were a departure from the traditional beef offerings and marked McDonald's entry into chicken-based products.
6. What popular items were temporarily removed during the COVID-19 pandemic?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, McDonald's temporarily removed all-day breakfast, salads, and some more complex menu items to streamline operations. Many of these have since returned or evolved.
7. Why did McDonald's discontinue the Super Size option?
The Super Size option was discontinued in 2004 amidst health concerns and shifting consumer preferences towards healthier eating habits. It was replaced by other value-driven menu offerings.
8. What was significant about McDonald's in the 1970s?
The 1970s saw the introduction of the Egg McMuffin, McDonald's first breakfast menu, and the creation of the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. It was a decade of menu expansion and innovation.
9. Who invented the McDonald's Speedy Service System?
The McDonald brothers, Maurice and Richard McDonald, pioneered the Speedy Service System in the 1940s. This system revolutionized fast food preparation with its assembly line approach.
10. How did McDonald's respond to cultural and dietary preferences over the years?
McDonald's has adapted its menu to cater to changing tastes and dietary preferences, introducing items like salads, fruit parfaits, and more recently, plant-based options and healthier alternatives.
11. What was the significance of the Dollar Menu?
The Dollar Menu, introduced in the early 2000s, offered affordable options during economic downturns. It evolved over time to the $1 $2 $3 Menu, catering to budget-conscious customers.
12. What was the McRib and why did it gain popularity?
The McRib was a pork sandwich introduced intermittently on the menu. Its popularity stemmed from its unique barbecue sauce and limited-time availability, creating a cult following among fans.
13. How has McDonald's menu evolved internationally?
McDonald's has adapted its menu globally to suit local tastes and preferences. This includes items like the McFlurry, which was a global hit, and regional specialties like the McKroket in the Netherlands.
14. What were some of McDonald's most recent menu innovations?
Recent innovations include all-day breakfast, premium burgers like the Angus lineup, and ongoing experiments with new flavors and limited-time offerings to keep the menu fresh and appealing.
15. How has McDonald's managed its menu during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic?
During crises, McDonald's has streamlined its menu to ensure operational efficiency and meet changing consumer demands, focusing on core offerings while temporarily removing less popular items.