Bob's Big Boy Restaurant of Burbank, California

The Bob's Big Boy Restaurant at 4211 Riverside Drive in Burbank, California is the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in the United States.Bob's Big Boy of Burbank menu, January 2007.] Built in 1949 by local residents Scott MacDonald and Ward Albert, it was designed by noted Los Angeles architect Wayne McAllister, "incorporating the 1940s transitional design of streamline modern style, while anticipating the freeform 50's coffee shop architecture. The towering Bob's sign is an integral part of the building design and its most prominent feature."

The restaurant was designated a California Point of Historical Interest in 1993. McAllister worked to preserve the structure as a historic landmark. McAllister was the architect for the original Lawry's restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills and the original Sands and Desert Inn casinos in Las Vegas. He designed more than 40 coffee shops in the Los Angeles area in the late 1940s, and gave each an individual look.

The Bob's Big Boy building represents a distinct period in the region's architectural history, often referred to as Googie. Creative coffee shop designs started in Los Angeles because of the popularity of automobiles, and then spread across the nation. The building features curving windows and oversized roof overhangs with 1950s "free-form" style of cantilevered roofs and tall display signs.

The Riverside Drive Bob's Big Boy was designed as a drive-in, in which carhops brought food to the cars, and now has a drive-thru window.

The MacDonald family acquired the restaurant in 1993, rehabilitating the tower sign, adding a patio and remodeling the dining room. Carhop service was reintroduced on weekends and a weekly classic car show is hosted in the parking lot.

Bob Hope, along with movie stars like Mickey Rooney, Debbie Reynolds, Jonathan Winters, Dana Andrews, Alexis Smith and Craig Stevens, were once regulars over at the restaurant. Bob Hope would use the Burbank drive-in often because it was off the beaten track and afforded him the privacy he desired.

The Burbank location has a table in the back where The Beatles sat. For many years a plaque commemorated this, but according to store employees, it was stolen and replaced many times, and is currently not in place.fact|date=April 2007

External links

* [http://www.jbhs1967.com/Bob's_Big_Boy.htm Images of the restaurant]

References