The History of the Bob's Big Boy Restaurant.

Bob's Big Boy is a restaurant chain founded by Bob Wian in Southern California in 1936, originally named Bob's Pantry.[2][3] It is now part of Big Boy Restaurant Group, the current primary trademark owner and franchisor of the Big Boy system.[4] At its peak in 1989, there were over 240 Bob's locations throughout the United States, most belonging to Marriott. As of April 2023, the company operates 4 locations in California.[5][6][note 1] Those four locations are in Burbank (Toluca Lake), 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. In August 2020, plans were announced to open a Bob's Big Boy in Indian Springs, Nevada. The restaurant opened on November 8, 2020 as Big Boy without the Bob's branding, with future expansion planned across Southern Nevada.[7][8][9] 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