The Big Boy restaurant chain’s iconic overalls-wearing mascot used to be an ubiquitous sight across the U.S. — especially here in the Detroit area, where the nearly 90-year-old company is headquartered. At its height there were nearly 1,000 Big Boys across the country, but their number has declined precipitously over the years as dining tastes and trends change. Today the chain has only 60 restaurants in the U.S., mostly in Michigan.
But now, the company is trying to inject new life into the brand with a fast-food spin-off called Bob’s Big Boy. The new store is readying to open at 32704 Grand River Ave. in Farmington.
Franchisee Ali Baydoun says the new format is an experiment to bring down costs.
“This is actually the first one,” he says. “So I’m the guinea pig.”
The site was formerly home to a Burger King and later, a short-lived restaurant called Detroit Eatz, which pitched a “drive-thru deli” concept. Bob’s Big Boy will retain the drive-thru, as well as an indoor dining area that seats about 60.
Unlike other Big Boy locations, there will be no table service, nor breakfast and salad buffets; instead, customers order at a counter.
The menu is also scaled down from typical Big Boy restaurants, but Baydoun says it will feature the chain’s signature items like the Classic Big Boy double-decker burger, Slim Jim Sandwiches, fish and chips, shakes, and hot fudge cake, among others.
Baydoun says he’s aiming to open in July, and is hiring.
It’s not the first time the company has tried out different formats. Its restaurants have had a number of incarnations over the years, evolving from drive-ins to coffee shops and eventually family restaurants. In the ’90s, an Upper Midwest franchise called Marc’s Big Boy opened two drive-thru-only Big Boy Express stores. And in 2019, Big Boy opened a fast-casual location at 26400 Telegraph Rd. in Southfield where it experimented with new menu items like a chicken kabob, a Greek salad, and plant-based Impossible Burgers. It was also the chain’s first fast-casual location to offer breakfast in addition to lunch and dinner.
Baydoun, who also owns a traditional Big Boy restaurant in Garden City, says that the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a major blow to his business.
“My sales went from $40,000 down to $500, $600 a week,” he adds. “It was devastating.”
Baydoun says the new format can be staffed with fewer workers. “This is kind of a small version of it,” he says. “We can actually compete now.”
The name is a reference to the chain’s first restaurant, Bob’s Pantry, which opened in 1936 in Glendale, California. Over the years the chain’s restaurants have been branded as Bob’s, Bob’s Big Boy, and Bob’s — Home of the Big Boy Hamburger, among others, and it also has regional chains like Michigan’s Elias Brothers and Ohio-based Frisch’s.
In 1987, the Elias Brothers purchased the company and moved its headquarters to Warren, later declaring bankruptcy in 2000, after which it was sold to an investor. In 2018, the chain was sold to another group of Michigan investors and is now based in Southfield. (Oddly, Big Boy remains big in Japan, with more than 270 restaurants there, although the menu is quite different.)
After immigrating from Lebanon to the Detroit area in the 1970s, Baydoun says he got his first job at age 13 washing dishes at a long-shuttered Big Boy at Michigan and Telegraph.
“I started working for Big Boy when I was a baby,” he says.
He began learning other aspects of the business, like helping flipping burgers in the kitchen. He says by age 17, he moved up to manager.
“Land of opportunity,” he says.
“One of the goals that I set up in my early days as a man was to own my own Big Boy, because I worked for them through high school, through college,” he adds. “I always wanted to own my own Big Boy. … I worked hard and saved money.”
After careers working on a Chrysler assembly line and as a medical equipment buyer, Baydoun acquired a closed-down Big Boy in Garden City in 2018.
He says he had his eye on purchasing the Grand River location when he heard members of the corporate office mention an idea for a fast-food spin-off and volunteered to run it.
The company has fallen on hard times in recent years. Last month, The Detroit News reported that Big Boy is once again at risk of bankruptcy, with its bank accounts frozen as the federal government investigates its role in an alleged $11 million money laundering scheme.
Baydoun says the franchisees are not involved in the matter and could not comment on it. Big Boy’s corporate office could not be reached for comment.
Baydoun is hopeful that the fast-food concept will help the company. “If this goes well, watch out — everybody will be jumping in because you don’t need the labor cost and the overhead of the regular stores,” he says. “If it’s successful, there’ll probably be hundreds of them popping up.”
He adds that he has six daughters who will help him.
“If other fast food restaurants can do it, we can,” he says. “We have the brand. I think anybody that’s over 50, 60 grew up on Big Boy. On every corner, there was a Big Boy.”
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