Restaurant - Bob's Big Boy and Our Version, Kip's on Mockingbird Lane

Bob's Big Boy was a restaurant chain that Bob Wian founded in Southern California in 1936.  Bob sold his prized Desoto Roadster to purchase a small hamburger stand in Glendale, which he named Bob's Pantry.

He created a new style of hamburger with two meat patties and three slices of bread - the first double-decker hamburger was born.

Filmmaker David Lynch ate lunch here every day here for 7 years and claimed the combination of sugar and caffeine gave him ideas for many of his films.

Bob's Big Boy had a slew of imitators, including McDonald's Big Mac.

Bob Wian died in 1992.  He gave his employees unheard of stock options and retirement plans that left many of his waitresses and line cooks millionaire retirees.

He was modest about his achievements.  In his later years, he carried around a business card that read: Robert C. "Bob" Wian, Fry Cook.  Retired.

It was during his early years at the humble stand that a regular customer, a jazz musician, challenged Bob to create a hamburger completely different from any other.

Wian took the challenge and sliced a sesame seed bun into three slices instead of the usual two.  He then added two hamburger patties and an extra layer of cheese, instead of the usual one.

One of his regulars was a six-year old boy named Richard Woodruff.  He was a chubby kid with baggy pants and a funny pompadour hairstyle.

Bob would give him free food in exchange for chores.  One day, one of his customers a Warner Brothers cartoonist, sketched a chubby boy on a napkin and gave it to Wian.  And so, the "Big Boy" was born and Washman's sketch of Richard Woodruff became one of America's most popular landmarks.

By the late 1940s, Wian incorporated the streamlined modern style for his restaurants, which anticipated the 1950s free-form coffee shop-style architecture.

Eventually, after several restaurants began ripping off his double-decker hamburger, Wian decided to franchise the Big Boy restaurants all over the country with five regional takers, including the Elias brothers in Detroit and Kip's in Texas, in late 1958.
By Bill Crozier and Fred Bell.

Kip's Big Boy Incorporated, which owned 12 Big Boy restaurants here in Dallas and four in Houston, were bought out by Frisch's Restaurant Inc. of Cinicnnati, OH in April 1972.

In 1956, Bob Wian started handing out Big Boy comic books to the children of customers.  The first of these comic books were written by Marvel legend Stan Lee and drawn by Submariner creator Bill Everett.

In 1964, he sold his restaurants and franchise to the Marriott Corporation.  This proved unsuccessful, causing several of Wian's original franchises to jump ship and start their own successful independent regional chain, called Shoney's.

In 1986, Richard Woodruff, the inspiration for Big Boy, died at age 56.

In 1992, Robert "Bob" Wian died in North Hollywood, California.  As of 2007, there were 850 Big Boy Restaurants across the country.

The Kip's on Mockingbird was a favorite place for late-night meals.  Because of its popularity, it had a large waiting area.

Food favorites included the Silver Goblet milkshake and Bob's Special Hot Fudge Sundae.  My favorites included a Rye Bread Patty Melt and Navy Bean Soup.  There was a special dressing on the hamburgers.

Sources:

www.bigboy.com
www.yahoovoices.com