FOOD: Big Boy bounces back

Temecula location to open soon; others in North County to follow

By CHRIS BAGLEY - Staff Writer | Thursday, July 17, 2008 8:13 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- Big Boy fell ill years ago but the swirly-haired lad in checkered overalls appears to be regaining his health.

After a 20-year decline, Big Boy Restaurants International LLC, now based in Warren, Mich., is bringing its iconic chubby character back to more locations in Southern California, including one in Temecula scheduled to open late next week and possibly several in North County over the next few years.

Can Big Boy lure a new generation of customers?

Jackie McGrew is optimistic. McGrew, of Murrieta, remembers eating at Bob's Big Boys ---- as they're still known on the West Coast ---- in Bell Gardens, where she grew up.

She remembers grappling with breakfast at a Bob's in Downey on the morning after her 21st birthday, and stopping in often for lunch at a Huntington Park Bob's in the early 1970s. The cheeseburgers were "second to none," she said.

But the chain lost its luster over the years, and many of its restaurants closed in the 1990s. A Bob's at the intersection of Rancho Santa Fe Road and San Marcos Boulevard was disappointing, and open for a just couple of years in the early 1990s, she said.

A Big Boy that McGrew visited a few months ago in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., one of two dozen to open since 2000, was better, she added.

"It was just as good as I remember growing up," McGrew said.

One restaurant analyst said the chain's prospects are mixed.

The nostalgic appeal and larger-than-life statue are great draws, but Big Boy's standard American fare ---- including omelettes, French fries and spaghetti ---- seems dated, said Bob Goldin, an analyst with Technomic Inc., a Chicago-based food-industry consultancy. And "family restaurants" aren't drawing any more families than they did in Big Boy's 1960s heydey, Goldin said.

"It's kind of a tired segment," Goldin said. "I think it's a very, very modest growth opportunity at best."

The company's new owners say they have 72 years of history on their side. Founded as a Glendale cheeseburger stand in 1936 by Bob Wian, Big Boy eventually expanded to some 600 restaurants across the nation with the help of its namesake character, who appeared as a statue out front and as a comic-book character inside.

Chief executive Tony Michaels, who took over shortly before the company emerged from bankruptcy in 2000, said the company's decline paralleled a lack of focus. And the bankruptcy followed a series of "ill-advised" ventures outside of the restaurant industry, Michaels said.

Between 1967 and 2000, the company weathered a series of corporate owners and disputes with regional franchises. One, Shoney's, ended up in litigation over the Big Boy trademark.

A large Midwestern franchisee bought the franchisor in 1987 and moved its headquarters from California to the Detroit suburbs.

Since 2000, Big Boy has reorganized and redecorated and has revamped the menu. Michaels pointed to a Mexican-themed salad as one of several items aimed at Americans' developing palates. And the chain's new look features a mix of 1950s and newer decor.

"We really, really made it contemporary and relevant," Michaels said.

Michaels said the company cut out 32 locations whose owners didn't want to go along with the changes.

It's added 23 locations since emerging from bankruptcy, mostly franchises, he said. One of the next on the plate is on Jefferson Avenue, just north of Winchester Road in Temecula, where the Big Boy restaurant is expected to open next week. A location in Norco is set to follow within a few months. Franchising is responsible for most of the regrowth, and for all of the new locations in California, where franchisees now own a restaurant in Calimesa and 11 others in the greater Los Angeles area.

Michaels said he expects franchisees to open eight to 10 restaurants in San Diego County and 140 statewide over the next decade.

According to company lore, the cherubic "Big Boy" was based on a chubby 6-year-old who ate at the Glendale burger stand in the early years. He went on to become a symbol for the restaurants, including Shoney's Big Boy restaurants, an autonomous chain of franchisees in several southeastern states. Michaels said Shoney's dropped the "Big Boy" trademark in the early 1980s, following a dispute with the franchisor.

Frisch's, a Cincinatti-based restaurant chain, uses the "Big Boy" brand under license in 87 restaurants that it runs independently of Big Boy International, according to the two companies.

Contact staff writer Chris Bagley at (760) 740-5444 or cbagley@nctimes.com.

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