How did it all start.

       While hamburgers were introduced to the United States in the early 20th century, the first fast-food restaurant chain, White Castle, opened its doors in 1921 in Wichita, Kansas selling burgers for a nickel along with side orders of frnch fries and a soda. White Castle thrived but it wasn’t until after WWII that we began the journey to becoming a fast-food nation.

        The McDonald brothers designed their fast- food hamburger restaurant in an attempt to streamline the process of making food and to reduce the costs of production. Their octagonal-shaped restaurant, which opened in San Bernardino, California, in 1945, also eliminated the need for waitresses, thus reducing operating costs even further. By 1951, McDonald’s grossed $275,000, an unheard of amount of money for any small restaurant at the time.

      The decision to franchise their idea along with a distinctive architectural design (the Golden Arches) put McDonald’s on the map. By 1960, there were 100 franchises operating across the country. But it was Ray Kroc, an equipment salesman who serviced McDonald’s, who bought the business from the McDonalds’s and took it to new levels of success.