Bob's Big Boy

History

This Bob's (pictured right) on 3130 East Colorado Avenue was demolished in 1982. Pasadena has lacked a Bob's Big Boy since.

The Big Boy itself began with Bob Wian in Glendale, California. Bob sold his car for $350 and opened a small restaurant called Bob's Pantry. He set into operation a policy that persists today through all Big Boy restaurants... the finest quality food and the best service.

Members of an orchestra playing in the vicinity stopped in the restaurant and asked Bob Wian if he could dream up something different than just a plain hamburger. "Why not," Wian mused.

As if his hands were guided by aqn unseen force, he cut a regulation hamburger bun into three slices, and inserted not one but two hamburger patties into place. It was then garnished with a special and very delectable relish he had prepared. Wian handed the innvoation to the players and anxiously awaited the decision.

"Wow," they chorused. "This is it!" And it was. Other customers saw him preparing it and asked for one. They agreed with the musicians. Wian had amde a better hamburger.

One day a chubby youngster walked into Wian's now flourishing restaurant. "He was about six," Bob recalled, "and rolls of fat protrouded where his shirt and pants were designed to meet. I was so amused by the youngster - jolly, healthy looking and obviously a lover of good things to eat, I called him big boy." So why not name the new hamburger Big Boy? Wian did. That was the birth of the first double-decker hamburger.

Big Boy is a registered trademark of Big Boy Restaurants International.