Bob’s Massive Boy founder, Bob Wian, began on the backside. Shortly after graduating highschool in 1933, he labored on the White Log Espresso Store in Los Angeles. He labored his approach up from dishwasher to fry cook dinner after which to supervisor.
His boss on the time, Davis W. Wooden, would later change into the buying agent for the Bob’s Massive Boy chain. Whereas on the White Log Espresso Store, Wian discovered their total working system, from pricing to utilizing a central commissary for all their areas.
Wian believed he may construct a greater mousetrap.
He was adamant about gaining restaurant expertise. So, he stop his administration job and returned to an entry-level dishwashing gig at Ceremony Spot.
Wian additionally discovered the fry cook dinner and counterman stations. The Ceremony Spot provided curb service, and Wian’s youthful sister was a carhop there.
All About Bob’s Massive Boy
Meals Service is The place It’s At
At Ceremony Spot, he discovered how necessary consistency is in meals service. Leonard A. Dunagan employed Wian at Ceremony Spot, and he would later be Bob’s Massive Boy firm’s vp and common supervisor.
I assume it paid off to be sort to Wian.
Wian had been saving up his earnings to open a spot he may name his personal. He got here throughout a ten-stool stand between a nursery and a liquor retailer in Glendale, California.
He used the proceeds to purchase the shop after promoting his DeSoto Roadster for 300 {dollars}. Then, he borrowed fifty {dollars} from his dad for provides.
On August 6, 1936, the stand reopened as Bob’s Pantry.
Bob’s Massive Boy Inspirations
Lots of the dishes on the Bob’s Pantry menu have been “impressed” by his earlier locations of employment and eating places that he frequented, like White Log’s pancakes and C.C. Brown’s Ice Cream Parlor’s scorching fudge sundae. The crimson hamburger relish from Ceremony Spot discovered its approach onto the creation that will catapult Bob’s Pantry into the world of burger legend.
In February 1937, members of the Glendale Excessive College orchestra have been having their typical burger meal when one in all them requested for “one thing completely different, one thing particular?” as he recalled in an interview for the Milwaukee Journal on December 16, 1958.
That day, he created a sandwich that has been imitated one million instances, the unique double-deck hamburger.
The Unique Double-Deck Hamburger
The unique double-deck hamburger had a sesame bun sliced twice to create a center piece of bread. If it sounds acquainted, it has had a whole lot of restaurant imitators, together with probably the most well-known one, McDonald’s Massive Mac.
I’ll use McDonald’s Massive Mac terminology for the next paragraph: the underside bun is the heel, the center is the membership, and the sesame-seed high is the crown.
The heel was topped with a two-ounce beef patty, a slice of American cheese, and one and a half ounces of shredded lettuce with mayo, in that order.
The membership was positioned on the underside two-ounce beef patty.
The higher half was stacked with crimson relish (candy pickle relish, ketchup, and chili sauce), one other two-ounce beef patty, and mayo, with the crown on high.
Bob’s Massive Boy Historical past Begins Right here
There are two completely different tales concerning the origins of the Massive Boy burger identify.
One entails a chubby six-year-old named Richard Woodruff, who helped round Bob’s Pantry and was paid in burgers. A short while after the double-deck hamburger was created, Wian referred to as Woodruff “Massive Boy,” and the identify caught.
There’s additionally the rumor that Woodruff was initially nicknamed “Fats Boy,” however the identify couldn’t be used due to a Fats Boy’s Bar-B-Q restaurant, in order that they selected the subsequent neatest thing, “Massive Boy.”
Warner Brothers animation artist Ben Washam drew the unique sketch for the enduring Massive Boy character with the checkered overalls and burger in hand.
Washam and Wian had labored collectively on the White Log Espresso Store. Wian renamed Bob’s Pantry after his now-famous double-deck hamburger, Bob’s Massive Boy.
The Massive Boy character would change into as a lot of an icon because the sandwich. The large statues exterior eating places would famously be stolen or kidnapped by pranksters.
The Massive Boy led to a favourite line of merchandising that exists to today. I nonetheless keep in mind proudly owning a Bob’s Massive Boy financial institution as a toddler.
Bob’s Massive Boy Licensing
Let’s begin calling Wian by his first identify, Bob. It’s a little bit friendlier. In 1938, a second Bob’s Massive Boy opened.
After increasing the unique location, curb service started at each eating places. Bob’s sister Dottie moved from Ceremony Spot to be a carhop at her brother’s institution.
It wasn’t till the late Forties that the Massive Boy identify would begin to unfold nationwide with the additions of Frisch’s Massive Boy (Cincinnati, Ohio), Eat’n Park Massive Boy (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Parkette Massive Boy (Charleston, West Virginia; it grew to become Shoney’s Massive Boy in 1954), and Elias Brothers Massive Boy (Detroit, Michigan).
Shoney’s sub-franchised the Massive Boy sandwich and identify on behalf of Bob’s Massive Boy.
Bob allowed these franchisees to promote his Massive Boy double-deck hamburger however to not use the identify “Bob’s Massive Boy.” For this reason you often discover the phrases “Massive Boy” proceeded with the possessive type of the proprietor’s identify.
What number of precisely have been there? Properly, let’s see. There was this many:
Abdow’s, Arnold’s, Azar’s, Becker’s, Bud’s, Chez Chap, Don’s, Eat’n Park, Elby’s, Elias Brothers, Franklin’s, Frejlach’s, Frisch’s, JB’s (US), JB’s (Canada), Kebo’s, Ken’s, Kip’s, Lendy’s, Leo’s, Manners, Marc’s, McDowell’s, Mr. B’s, Shap’s, Shoney’s, Ted’s, TJ’s, Tops, Tote’s, Tune’s, Vip’s, and Yoda’s.
I’m not even counting all the chubby-kid imitator eating places that sprouted as much as attempt to catch a few of that Bob’s Massive Boy magic.
Massive Gross sales Means Massive Enlargement
In keeping with an advert within the Van Nuys Information on November 7, 1951, Bob’s Massive Boy offered 2,600,000 Massive Boy sandwiches with eight working areas.
In 1956, the unique Bob’s Massive Boy location obtained a facelift and transform. The newly designed and rebuilt drive-in, designed by architects Wayne McAllister and William C. Wagner, may now seat ninety clients inside and have fifty-five parking areas exterior for carhop service.
Sadly, the landmark constructing was torn down in 1989 to make approach for a mall.
On April 28, 1967, the twenty-three-owned Bob’s Massive Boy eating places and the 5 hundred franchised eating places merged with Marriott-Scorching Shoppes Inc. Sure, Marriott, the mammoth resort chain.
On the time of the merger, Marriott was primarily a meals service firm that owned Scorching Shoppes eating places and 7 motels. Marriott began as a root beer stand in 1927, however that’s a narrative for an additional day.
Bob is Nonetheless the Boss
Bob continued as president of the brand new “Massive Boy Eating places of America” division till his resignation in Could 1968. Marriott started a speedy growth of Bob’s Massive Boy, combining opening latest areas with buying franchises like JB’s, Ken’s, and Manners’ shops.
Elias Brothers bought the Massive Boy trademark from Marriott in 1987. Marriott, nonetheless, saved the Bob’s Massive Boy identify and the 208 Bob’s Massive Boy eating places in operation.
On December 18, 1989, Marriott introduced that it was restructuring and specializing in its resort model. All of their Allie’s (32 areas), Bickford’s (31 areas), Bob’s Massive Boy (235 areas), Howard Johnson’s (57 areas), Roy Rogers (358 areas), and Wag’s (79 areas) eating places can be offered.
In late January 1991, 104 of the Marriott-owned Bob’s Massive Boys in California have been offered with the plan to be transformed to both Carrow’s or Coco’s eating places. The remainder of the Bob’s Massive Boy areas have been offered off piecemeal over the subsequent few years.
Bob’s Massive Boy Nonetheless Lives
In 2000, Robert Liggett bought Massive Boy Eating places Worldwide from the bankrupt Elias Brothers. Shortly after that, Liggett made a take care of Frisch’s Massive Boy, paying $1.2 million for franchise rights in Florida, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Frisch’s would have the unique Massive Boy rights in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio, excluding the Cleveland space.
If you happen to ever end up in Downey, California, the Bob’s Massive Boy location is named Bob’s Massive Boy Broiler, a drive-in restaurant with a Googie-style espresso store. The constructing was initially erected in 1958.
Its earlier incarnation was Harvey’s Broiler and later Johnie’s Broiler. In 2002, the State of California’s Historic Assets Fee registered the constructing as a Historic Landmark, which meant it was off-limits to demolition.
Don’t Mess with Massive Boy
On Sunday, January 7, 2007, the property’s present tenant started to tear down the constructing with none permits. Police stopped the unlawful demolition, and the fella accountable for it was later charged with 5 misdemeanor fees for his bother.
Out of this debacle, one hero rose from the ashes. Jim Louder, proprietor of Bob’s Massive Boy in Torrance, signed a ninety-nine-year lease with the property proprietor with assist from the Downey Historic Society. Downey’s Redevelopment Company rebuilt it.
No matter elements of the construction survived the demolition have been included into the brand new restaurant. The unique blueprints have been used to maintain it as genuine as potential.
Bizarre Massive Boy Reality
You will discover Massive Boy eating places in Japan, however one factor is noticeably absent: their signature burger. That’s proper; there are not any Massive Boy Double Deck Hamburgers on the menu at Massive Boy areas in Japan.
Azar’s Massive Boy
The final location of roughly 26 Azar’s Massive Boy eating places shut down in June 2020. My spouse was capable of snap a few photos once we have been in Fort Wayne, Indiana, however alas, we by no means ate there.
Massive Boy in Florida
In the course of the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, Frisch’s and Shoney’s Massive Boy eating places have been a well-known sight throughout Florida. Then, the Sunshine State was with no Massive Boy for about twenty years.
Though I grew up in Miami, my recollections of Massive Boy are tied to summers spent in Glendale, California, the place I visited my paternal grandmother. Bob’s Massive Boy was a part of these childhood journeys, and I at all times related it with a way of nostalgia and luxury.
So after I heard {that a} Massive Boy had opened in Sanford, Florida, round 2005, I knew I needed to make the journey. It didn’t final lengthy—only some years—however throughout one in all my many highway journeys (coincidentally throughout Nationwide Burger Month), I satisfied my spouse Marcela to drive there whereas we have been in Orlando for just a few days. Sanford was only a quick detour north.
The joy constructed as we approached, peaking after I noticed the enduring 8-foot-tall Massive Boy statue exterior the restaurant. However the second I took a chunk of my Massive Boy double deck hamburger, all that nostalgia light. It simply wasn’t the identical.
The expertise was so underwhelming that, for the primary time, I didn’t even really feel like writing about it for the Burger Beast Weblog. This fast write-up solely got here collectively after the Sanford location closed—maybe for one of the best.
Bob’s Massive Boy in California
Whereas I haven’t visited Bob’s Massive Boy in many years, my cousin Gregory lives near the Burbank, California, location. He despatched me this image.
You’ll be able to see the crimson relish peaking out from underneath the crown. Alright, now I’m jealous.
Frisch’s Massive Boy within the Midwest
I’ve visited just a few of Frisch’s Massive Boy areas in Kentucky and Ohio, and I recommend you do the identical.