Bob's Big Boy is a casual dining restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in Southern California in 1936, originally named Bob's Pantry. The chain's signature product is the Big Boy hamburger, which Wian created six months after opening his original location. Slicing a bun into three slices and adding two hamburger patties, Wian is credited with creating the original double-decker (or "double-deck") hamburger.
When Wian began franchising his restaurant across the United States in 1940s, the name "Bob's Big Boy" was only used for the directly owned-and-operated locations, while franchisees were required to substitute a different name for Bob's. This arrangement continued after the parent corporation was sold to Marriott Corporation in 1967. In 1987, Marriott sold the Big Boy trademark to Elias Brothers, the Michigan Big Boy franchisee, but the Bob's Big Boy name was retained for Marriott's locations, now as a franchisee. Marriott decided to divest itself of its food service operations in the early 1990s, and upon being sold most Bob's Big Boy locations were rebranded, often outside the Big Boy system.
At its peak in 1989, there were over 240 locations throughout the country that included "Bob's" name. With the closing of the Calimesa, California, restaurant in 2020, only four locations remain using the full "Bob's Big Boy" branding, all in the Los Angeles, California, area. Among those restaurants, two are now protected historic landmarks: the Burbank location on Riverside Drive and the Downey location, previously known as Johnie's Broiler. The other two Bob's Big Boy restaurants are in Norco and Northridge. The other locations across the United States, either directly under the Big Boy Restaurant Group or operated independently by trademark co-registrant Frisch's Big Boy, continue to omit "Bob's".
Bob Wian ownership
Background
Bob Wian entered Glendale High School as the Great Depression started in 1929. When his father's furniture business went 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. However, 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.
Wian was promoted to fry cook and 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. 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 Dunagan, 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 several years later. (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 Hollywood ice cream parlor C.C. Brown's.
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 Big Boy under Bob Wian (1936–1967) 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 to the popular sandwich provided a new name for his restaurant: Bob's Big Boy.
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. Note: it is a federal trademark which requires a national presence and which Wian sought. 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. Note: advertisement showing four restaurants in Glendale and one each in Burbank, Eagle Rock, Toluca Lake, and Van Nuys, California. 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, Note: Shows image of new McAllister designed drive in, describes Commissary, employee Pension 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 Alternative links: clipping 1 clipping 2 via NewspaperArchive.com. 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. )
Philosophy and practices Bob Wian developed rules and philosophies about how Big Boy should operate. Besides the Big Boy hamburger and its construction, he attributed most of his success and that of his franchisees to following these rules. His fundamental restaurant principles were: "serve the best quality food, at moderate prices, in spotless surroundings, with courtesy and hospitality." He believed "the customer is always right" and instructed employees that, "if any food item is not satisfactory, return it cheerfully and apologize for the error". Wian said he had five basic rules for building his business: "be a good place to work for, sell to, buy from, and invest in. And be a good neighbor in the community." He also attributed the growth to, "capable management and a conservative policy of not trying to seat more people than can be served or opening more restaurants than can be serviced." If some disruption occurred at a restaurant, such as a new manager or renovation, Wian would postpone advertising until operations would return to his standards.
Typical of Big Boy restaurants, Elby's Big Boy used a nine-step process for waiting on dining room customers:
Greet customers within one minute of being seated, serving water and taking beverage orders. Serve beverages and take meal orders. Call in meal orders to kitchen. Place setups (e.g., silverware) and condiments, serve salad items. Watch kitchen (number panel) for completed order and promptly serve meals to table. (The kitchen should complete orders within 8 minutes, 10 minutes for steaks.) Check back with customers within a few minutes: "Is everything OK?" Return and place check on the table: "I'll return shortly." Suggest dessert and take dessert orders. Serve desserts or deliver final check, remove empty dishes.
Bob Wian was discerning of employees, hiring wait staff—which he considered a profession—by appearance, intelligence and enthusiasm. He preferred employees with little or no restaurant experience which afforded training in the Big Boy tradition. Wian said that he "conned [employees] into believing in themselves ... I put my cooks in chef's outfits, even though they couldn't boil an egg". Other than wait staff, employees typically started as dishwashers and busboys, and advanced to short-order cooks, and then possibly to management. Bob's Big Boy was one of the first restaurant chains to offer health insurance and profit-sharing to employees.
Bob Wian excelled at franchise relations. He led 20-person training crews to open new Big Boy restaurants, made periodic nationwide tours of the franchises, was available for consultations and claimed to know every manager's name. He also assembled the principal franchisees as board members of the National Big Boy Association to participate in leadership. After Wian left, some Big Boy operators began to question the value of their franchise. part 2, part 3
Marriott ownership
As franchisor (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 longtime associates at Big Boy.