Big Boy Restaurants
| Big Boy logo | |
| Company type | Restaurant |
|---|---|
| Industry | casual dining restaurant |
| Founded | 1936 |
| Headquarters | Warren, Michigan |
Key people | Bob Wian, Founder Robert Liggett Jr, CEO |
| Website | www.bigboy.com |
Big Boy is a restaurant chain started in 1936 by Bob Wian in Glendale, California as Bob's Big Boy. Marriott bought the chain in 1967. One of the larger franchise operators, Elias Brothers, purchased the chain from Marriott, in 1987, moving the headquarters of the company to Warren, Michigan, and operating it until declaring bankruptcy, in 2000. Following the bankruptcy, the chain was sold to investor, Robert Liggett Jr., the current company CEO, who renamed the company Big Boy Restaurants International, and kept the headquarters in Warren. The company is the franchiser for more than 455 Big Boy Restaurants in the United States and Canada.
The chain is best-known for its trademark chubby boy in red- and white-checked pants with suspenders holding a double-decker hamburger. The inspiration for Big Boy's name, as well as the model for its mascot, was James C. Welch, of Boca Raton, FL. When he was 6-years-old, he walked into the diner as Bob Wian was attempting to name his new hamburger. Wian said "Hello Big Boy" to Welch, and the name stuck. Ben Washam sketched James' caricature, which became the character seen on the company logo. This character would eventually also be featured in a Big Boy comic book, produced as a promotional giveaway for children visiting the restaurant.
Besides its namesake Big Boy hamburger, the chain offers other burger combinations, along with cakes and pies.
Regional franchises
In addition to the Bob's Big Boy name, the "Big Boy" concept, menu, and mascot were originally franchised to a wide number of regional franchise holders, listed below (with approximate original territory in parentheses). Of these, only Frisch's still maintains franchise rights to the "Big Boy" name, and many of the other former franchise owners (Shoney's, for example) have now expanded into areas that used to be regional territory for another franchise holder, and the current Big Boy Restaurants International has been expanding its Bob's Big Boy name into territories formerly held by franchisees.
Unlike most modern franchises, the various restaurants differed somewhat from one another in terms of price level and menu offerings.
- Abdow's (Massachusetts, Connecticut)
- Azar's (Northern Indiana, Colorado)
- Big Boy of Florida (Exclusive rights to the Central Florida territory was acquired by Irv Lichtenwald from 2006 through 2011 with the right to extend this franchise for 6 additional years)
- Bob's (California, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Northeastern Ohio, New York, New Jersey, as well as Indiana and Pennsylvania turnpike and airport locations operated in several states by the Marriott Corp.)
- Eat'n Park (metro Pittsburgh) dropped Big Boy in 1976.
- Elby's (West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio) owned the Big Boy rights to northern West Virginia, originally through Shoney's and quickly expanded Big Boy into bordering Ohio counties, subfranchised through Frisch's, and later expanded through Pennsylvania. A trademark battle with Frisch's over Ohio operations caused Elby's to drop Big Boy affiliation, to be followed by Shoney's et al.
- Elias Brothers (Michigan, Northeastern Ohio, Ontario, Canada)
- Thumb Area Big Boy Restaurants- the only place to eat in the thumb! Bad Axe, Caro, Sandusky, Michigan.
- Frisch's (Ohio, Kentucky, S. Indiana, Florida until the early 1990s) the Cincinnati restaurant chain and first franchisee, began serving Big Boy hamburgers in 1946; Frisch's now operates 88 Big Boys & franchises 32 Big Boys to others. They also franchise Golden Corrals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Kentucky.
- JB's (Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Wyoming, Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, Rhode Island)
- JB's (Canada) (Ontario and Alberta in the 1970s)
- Kebo's (Seattle & Tacoma, Washington area)
- Kip's (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas)
- Lendy's (Western Virginia)
- Mady's (Windsor, Ontario, Canada)
- Manner's (Northeastern Ohio)
- Marc's (Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois) were owned by the Marcus Corporation. Some were sold, others were converted to Marc's Café and later Annie's American Café. Most now operate as Perkins.
- McDowell's (North Dakota)
- Shoney's (Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, southwestern Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri), founded by and named after Alex Schoenbaum, no longer displays the Big Boy Statue, because it dropped its relationship with Big Boy in order to expand to other states where others owned the trademark, in 1984. It was the second Big Boy franchisee and subfranchised to Elby's, Lendy's and Yoda's.
- TJ's (New York)
- Top's (Illinois)
- Vip's (New Mexico)
- Yoda's (Western Virginia)
Also, Big Boy Japan owns and operates 216 locations (as of September 2007) throughout Japan under four restaurant names: Big Boy (199 stores), Milky Way (50), Victoria Station (43), and Grill Dan (4).
Notable locations
- Bob's Big Boy Restaurant of Burbank, California (est. 1949), oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in America and a designated California Point of Historical Interest.
- The first Phoenix, Arizona Bob's Big Boy (est. 1954), was a notable exception to the traditional architecture in California. The restaurant was located at Central Avenue and Thomas Road. It's success quickly put two other nearby drive-in restaurants out of business. The building was very modern with horizontal overhanging roof lines and native stone at the entrance. Above was a large mural that resembled a Hopi sand painting of Kachinas. There was a covered area to the east of the building for car hop service.
References
- Hansen, Christian (2002). The Big Boy Story: "King of Them All". Haagen Printing. ISBN 0-9671943-6-9.
- Grandberry, Nikki (2006), Altamont Springs Opens March 29 (PDF)