Bob's Big Boy



Bob's Big Boy is a restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in Southern California in 1936, originally named Bob's Pantry. It is now part of Big Boy Restaurant Group, the current primary trademark owner and franchisor of the Big Boy system. At its peak in 1989, there were over 240 Bob's locations throughout the United States, most belonging to Marriott. By August 2019, only five Bob's Big Boy Restaurants remain in operation, all in Southern California. Those five locations are in Burbank (Toluca Lake), Calimesa, Downey, Norco, and Northridge. Two of these restaurants are now protected historic landmarks: the Burbank location on Riverside Drive and the Downey location, previously known as Johnie's Broiler.

The restaurant is named after Wian and the Big Boy hamburger, which he created six months after opening his original location. Slicing a bun into three slices and adding two hamburger patties, Wian had created the original double-deck hamburger.

Bob Wian before Big Boy
Bob Wian entered Glendale High School as the Great Depression started in 1929. His father's furniture business bankrupt, Wian washed dishes in the school cafeteria to pay for lunch. Not being a committed student – he never took homework home – classmates voted Wian most unlikely to succeed. But his father's business failure and classmates' doubts would lead Wian to success.

After graduation in 1933, Wian found work as the overnight dishwasher at a Los Angeles White Log Coffee Shop, a West Coast chain similar to White Castle. Suddenly he was interested in how a restaurant worked and how it could be improved; he became determined to own a restaurant or even a chain. And he was intent on proving his classmates wrong.

Now ambitious, Wian was promoted to fry cook then a manager. He learned the White Log system, its merchandising and pricing of foods, and use of a central commissary; Wian would later apply these concepts to Big Boy. He would also adopt White Log's pancake batter recipe. And at White Log he befriended fellow fry cook Bennie Washam, who would later sketch the original Big Boy mascot.

Wanting wider experience, Wian quit and took a dishwashing job with his favorite Glendale restaurant, Lionel Sternberger's Rite Spot. Again he was promoted to counterman and fry cook. The man who hired Wian and was his boss, Leonard Dunagen, would later be hired by Wian and became vice president of Bob's Big Boy.

Wian discovered how Rite Spot made its chili, hamburgers, and red hamburger relish – the same relish Wian would use on the Big Boy hamburger. And he learned the importance of consistency in foods served.

The Rite Spot also offered curb service, as Bob's Big Boy would in several years. (His sister Dottie was a carhop at the Rite Spot before moving to Bob's Big Boy.) However, Wian's first drive-in work was at a Pig Stand. The restaurants used pig shaped die cut menus and some had a big pig in front; similarly Bob's would use Big Boy shaped die cut menus and later display large Big Boy statues out in front.

Wian also patronized other restaurants looking for additional menu items, attempting to recreate the favored items at home, and sometimes prodding food suppliers for how they were made. Bob's hot fudge sundae, for example, was adopted from the sundae served at C. C. Brown's Ice Cream Parlor.

Wian claimed that there was nothing new at Bob's Big Boy – excepting the double-deck Big Boy hamburger – and that he was building Big Boy in his mind while at these previous jobs. Confident from his restaurant employment and encouraged by his father, he was already looking for a location when The Pantry was placed for sale.

Bob's Pantry
In August 1936, Wian quit his job at the Rite Spot and sold his 1933 DeSoto Roadster for $300 to make the down payment on a 10-stool hamburger stand in Glendale called The Pantry. He cleaned the place until it "shine[d] like a brand new penny", borrowed $50 from his father for meat and supplies, and reopened as Bob's Pantry. Six months later, Wian assembled his special double-decker hamburger. Created as a joke for a customer wanting something different, the novel hamburger began drawing business. The "snappy" name given the popular sandwich provided a new name for his restaurant: Bob's Big Boy.

Bob Wian: 1937–1967
Wian opened a second drive-in in Burbank in 1938, launching drive-in curb service at both locations. During World War II, Wian experienced shortages of both meat and manpower, and one of the four Bob's then in operation closed. Soon after the war – in 1946 – Wian formed Robert C. Wian Enterprises to assume his restaurant business.

In the late 1940s, Wian licensed two operators in the East to sell his Big Boy hamburger, Frisch's Big Boy in Cincinnati and Eat'n Park Big Boy in Pittsburgh; this served Wian's goal to procure and maintain a national trademark. In 1951, the third licensee Alex Schoenbaum of Shoney's Big Boy sold Wian on a formal franchising system, and with the popularity of the drive-in restaurant, a series of franchising and subfranchising Big Boy followed in the 1950s. The franchisees were required to sell the Big Boy hamburger and use their own name with Big Boy, not Bob's.

By 1951, eight Bob's Big Boys were in operation. The Bob's imprint of the first (1956) edition of Adventures of the Big Boy comic book lists ten locations, including one in Arizona, while a legal filing claims twelve locations. The 18th Bob's opened in 1963, and the chain's 1965 menu lists 23 California restaurants (including one opening in late 1965 and another in 1966) and six Arizona restaurants, which represented about 5% of the national Big Boy chain.

Wian provided his workers health insurance and a profit-sharing plan, which included the option of employees to franchise a Bob's. In 1955 the first such unit opened in Phoenix, another opened in Tucson in 1962 and three more locations by 1968. (By 1974 there were nine Phoenix metropolitan area Bob's, including one under construction, when the units were acquired by JB's Big Boy for $2.7 million. )

Marriott: 1967–1987
In 1961, a merger was briefly explored with the John R. Thompson Co., a Chicago-based restaurant operator. Five years later another merger was proposed, and in May 1967, Big Boy was sold to the Marriott Corporation. In addition to the trademark, the sale included Wian's 22 company owned Bob's Big Boys. (Another 580 franchised Big Boy restaurants operated in 38 states nationwide. )

After the merger, Wian remained as president of Marriott's new "Big Boy Restaurants of America" division. Used to dealing with franchisees and store managers on a personal level, he became overwhelmed with the increasing size of the chain, describing it as "this monster I built". Also unhappy with Marriott's new focus on rapid growth and corporate profits, over his approach and practices, Wian became discouraged and resigned as president in May 1968. He accepted membership on Marriott's board, but his guidance never sought, Wian likewise quit that position in the summer of 1969. Although he attended the 1972 annual Big Boy Executive Conference, Wian generally avoided Bob's Big Boys and refused invitations to special events at the restaurants. He remained close friends with long time associates at Big Boy.

Marriott began rapid expansion using the Bob's name that it now owned. By 1971 there were 49 California Bob's, and by 1979, 132. It bought the Ken's Big Boy franchise in the Washington, DC-Baltimore metropolitan area in 1969 and JB's Big Boy's franchise in New Jersey in 1975, rebranding them as Bob's. In the mid-1970s Bob's Big Boy expanded into Alaska and Hawaii. Marriott also bought the 39-unit Manners Big Boy chain in 1974 which may have been renamed Bob's Big Boy in 1979. The 26 operating Cleveland-area restaurants were sold to and rebranded Elias Brothers Big Boy in 1985.

Marriott as franchisee: 1987–1990s
In 1987 Marriott sold the Big Boy trademark to Elias Brothers, the Michigan Big Boy franchisee, but retained the Bob's Big Boy name and restaurants as a franchisee. At the time, Marriott operated 208 Bob's Big Boys, including company-owned Bob's in Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and the District of Columbia. Many of these eastern Bob's were sited at rest stops on interstate toll roads, often conversions of recently purchased Howard Johnson's restaurants, while others were in territory that belonged to previous franchisees. Several Bob's Big Boy restaurants, such as five in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area and two along the Ohio Turnpike were not owned by Marriott.

Marriott kept its company-owned Bob's units under franchise after the sale to Elias Brothers, and the number of such Bob's increased to 238 by 1989 when Marriott decided to divest of its food service operations. In 1991, already having converted some San Diego stores to Allie's, named after J. Willard Marriott's wife Alice, it sold 104 California Bob's (to a company which outbid Elias Brothers) removing the units from the Bob's chain and the Big Boy system. Toll road Bob's Big Boys remained in service longer due to Marriott's contractual obligations, but are no longer in operation. Privately-owned Eastern U.S. Bob's were also sold.

Big Boy Restaurants International: 2000–2018
When Robert Liggett (i.e., Big Boy Restaurants International) bought Big Boy from the bankrupt Elias Brothers in 2000, ten western Bob's Big Boys were in operation, dropping to eight by 2006. (The last Bob's in Hawaii closed after suffering a fire in 2009. ) Now limited to California, Bob's grew to 16 restaurants by 2011, but started to decline again. Although Big Boy Restaurants International expected to open 140 California units by 2018, only five Bob's Big Boy Restaurants remain, all in the Greater Los Angeles Area of Southern California.

Big Boy Restaurant Group: 2018-present
In 2018, Liggett sold the parent company which was renamed Big Boy Restaurant Group. The company franchises both Bob's Big Boy and non–branded Big Boy restaurants.

Burbank
The Bob's Big Boy Restaurant located at 4211 Riverside Drive in Burbank, California, is the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the United States. Built in 1949 by local residents Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, it was designed by Los Angeles architect Wayne McAllister, "incorporating the 1940s transitional design of Streamline Moderne style, while anticipating the freeform 1950s coffee shop architecture". The style's often referred to as 'Googie architecture', which originated in Southern California.

The building features a curving windowed facade, expansive roof overhangs with 1950s "free-form" style of cantilevered roofs, and tall display signs. The towering Bob's sign is an integral part of the building design and its most prominent feature." The styling is said to have "made McAllister's reputation," and he is credited with creating the restaurant's circular drive-through design.

The restaurant was designated a California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. McAllister worked to preserve the structure as a historic landmark (McAllister was also the architect for the original Lawry's restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, amongst other buildings).

The Riverside Drive venue was designed as a drive-in, in which car hops brought food to the cars, and now operates a drive-thru window. In 1993, the tower sign was renovated, the dining room updated and an outdoor dining area was added. Carhop service was reintroduced on weekends and a weekly classic car show's hosted in the parking lot.

Bob Hope and other film personalities including Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds and Jonathan Winters were once regulars at the restaurant. Hope frequented the Burbank drive-in as it afforded him privacy.

The Beatles dined at the Burbank location during their 1965 U.S. tour. For many years, a plaque has described the event; the plaque has been stolen many times by fans, and replaced each time. Many restaurant regulars call this booth "the Beatles Booth."

This location was known as "Bob's #6".

Glendale
The original Bob's Big Boy (initially called Bob's Pantry) was the 10-stool hamburger stand in Glendale, California, which founder Bob Wian purchased in 1936 and expanded into a drive-in restaurant. It eventually outgrew itself, and was replaced by a larger Bob's restaurant similar in style to the Burbank location. The larger restaurant opened in 1956 and could accommodate 90 customers inside seated in booths and at the counter, along with a separate area to serve additional take-out patrons, while the drive-in could service 55 cars at a time. The building was designed by architects Wayne McAllister and William C. Wagner, and was one of McAllister's last designs before resigning from architecture in 1956. This location was known as "Bob's #1" and remained as a Bob's until it was closed and demolished in 1989.

A second Glendale Bob's was located at the corner of West Broadway and Orange Street. It closed and a later Bob's Coffee Shop was opened about two blocks away on the ground floor of a building located at the northwest corner of East Broadway and Maryland Avenue. This location was known as "Bob's #4". Another Bob's Big Boy operated at 3212 La Crescenta Avenue in northern Glendale near the La Crescenta-Montrose community.

Phoenix
The first Phoenix, Arizona, Bob's Big Boy, established in 1954, was an exception to the California-based architecture. Located at Central Avenue and Thomas Road, the building employed horizontal overhanging roof lines and native stone at the entrance. Above was a large mural that resembled a Hopi sand painting of kachinas and a covered area to the east of the building for carhop service.

Downey
Bob's Big Boy Broiler in Downey, California, was once known as Johnie's Broiler. Also of Googie styling, the demolished structure was rebuilt based on the initial floor plan, and features carhop service, a drive-thru, and an original neon sign. It re-opened in 2009 as a Bob's Big Boy.

Later architectural designs
Beginning in the late 1950s, many Bob's Big Boy restaurants were designed by Armet & Davis, an architectural firm noted for its contributions to Googie architecture. The firm was hired in 1958 to produce stock plans for Bob's and various Big Boy franchises nationwide.

Serious Crimes
The West Los Angeles location on La Cienega Blvd. was the scene of one of Los Angeles' worst crimes. On December 14, 1980, 11 people were forced into the walk-in freezer, robbed of approximately $1700 and shot, leaving three dead at the scene, another dying five months later, and four others wounded, one of whom in mental incoherency. Carletha Stewart, a former employee, and her companions, Franklin Freeman and Ricky Sanders, were arrested in 1981, and convicted in 1982, receiving sentences ranging from death to 25 years to life. The crime motivated Jeffrey Bloom's 1986 TV movie The Right of the People which raised issues about the Second Amendment right to bear arms, right-to-carry laws, and defensive gun use.

Another murder occurred at the Bob's Big Boy in the Playa del Rey neighborhood of southwestern Los Angeles. On April 30, 1990, the restaurant manager was shot dead in an attempted robbery.