Wian opened a second drive-in in Burbank in 1938, launching drive-in curb service at both locations. The "snappy" name given to the popular sandwich provided a new name for his restaurant: Bob's Big Boy. Created as a joke for a customer wanting something different, the novel hamburger began drawing business. Six months later, Wian assembled his special double-decker hamburger. He cleaned the place until it "shine like a brand new penny", borrowed $50 from his father for meat and supplies, : D4 and reopened as 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. Confident from his restaurant employment and encouraged by his father, he was already looking for a location when The Pantry was placed for sale. Wian claimed that there was nothing new at Bob's Big Boy : D4 – excepting the double-deck Big Boy hamburger – and that he was building Big Boy in his mind while at these previous jobs. : D4 Bob's hot fudge sundae, for example, was adopted from the sundae served at C. 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. 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. ) However, Wian's first drive-in work was at a Pig Stand. (His sister Dottie was a carhop at the Rite Spot before moving to Bob's Big Boy. The Rite Spot also offered curb service, as Bob's Big Boy would several years later. : D4 And he learned the importance of consistency in foods served. Wian discovered how Rite Spot made its chili, hamburgers, and red hamburger relish : D1 : 12–13 – the same relish Wian would use on the Big Boy hamburger. 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. Again he was promoted to counterman and fry cook. Wanting wider experience, Wian quit and took a dishwashing job with his favorite Glendale restaurant, Lionel Sternberger's Rite Spot. Bob Wian, founder of Bob's Big Boy, about 1948 : 13 At White Log he befriended fellow fry cook Bennie Washam, who would later sketch the original Big Boy mascot. He would also adopt White Log's pancake batter recipe. : 12 He learned the White Log system, its merchandising and pricing of foods, and use of a central commissary : 36 Wian would later apply these concepts to Big Boy. Wian was promoted to fry cook and then a manager. And he was intent on proving his classmates wrong. : 33, 36 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. Īfter graduation in 1933, Wian found work as the overnight dishwasher at a Los Angeles White Log Coffee Shop, : 33 a West Coast chain similar to White Castle. However, his father's business failure and classmates' doubts would lead Wian to success. Not being a committed student – he never took homework home : D1 – classmates voted Wian most unlikely to succeed. : inside back cover When his father's furniture business went bankrupt, Wian washed dishes in the school cafeteria to pay for lunch. History Bob Wian before Big Boy īob Wian entered Glendale High School as the Great Depression started in 1929. As of April 2024, the company operates 4 locations in California. At its peak in 1989, there were over 240 locations throughout the country that used the full Bob's Big Boy name. Thus, most locations across the United States, either directly under the Big Boy Restaurant Group or operated independently by trademark co-registrant Frisch's Big Boy, omit "Bob's". When Wien began franchising his restaurant across the United States in 1940s, he only required franchisees to use "Big Boy", not "Bob's". It was eventually purchased by a group of Michigan investors in 2018, renaming the chain's parent company Big Boy Restaurant Group. The chain changed hands several times after Wien sold it in 1967. Slicing a bun into three slices and adding two hamburger patties, Wian had created the original double-decker (or "double-deck") hamburger. The restaurant is named after Wian and the Big Boy hamburger, which he created six months after opening his original location. Bob's Big Boy is a restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in Southern California in 1936, originally named Bob's Pantry.
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