Postcard from Southern California - Tales of the Big Boy

Bob's Big Boy Restaurant - now there is a name that flashes many memories going back to my days in college. Its a love affair with a cheeseburger that not only spans many years, but also some special people that have come in and out of my life. Today, whenever I find one, I go out of my way to have one of their great cheeseburgers, not for the memories, but rather for the taste. I must be getting old when a good cheeseburger is better than memories.

On this present journey, while on my way to Yuma from Northern California, I found one in Barstow, CA and made sure to stop there for dinner. Last year, I had also found one in Lake Havasu City, which for some reason is no longer listed on Bob's Web site. I hope it is still there. I will find out in a few days when I pass through there on my way to Yuma.

Bob's used to be a huge chain of restaurants that started in Southern California and then spread outwards. Today, only a handful of those restaurants remain. I don't know what happened, but the chain filed for bankruptcy in the year 2000. In looking at their Web site, it seems there are a great many of them in Michigan...almost as many as once reigned supreme in California.

I was introduced to Bob's Big Boy when I was dating a lovely young lady from Southern California named Linda. We met at San Jose State where we were both students. We fell in love and later married (Wife #1). On a visit to her home in SoCal, she took me to Bobs, her favorite hamburger joint. It instantly became my favorite and we visited many of their establishments all over the SoCal. Linda and I didn't have "our special song", but we did have our favorite restaurant.

A couple of years later...oh Joy of Joys...Bobs opened up a restaurant in San Jose. Heaven be praised!! But, on our first of many visit, Linda noticed that something was different about the burger. We made some inquiries and discovered that in Northern California, the main sauce used was thousand island dressing whereas the SoCal burgers used a mayonnaise-based spread. We also found out that you could special order SoCal style which is exactly what she did from that point on. I actually preferred the NoCal style and always stuck with that.

One other story I will tell you about Bob's. I was once dating a very nice lady named Janet who was from San Diego and was quite familiar with Bob's and liked them also, but perhaps not as much as me. She put up with my fetish of immediately getting off the road when I saw a Bob's restaurant, bless her heart. Anyway, one fine day, she was in SoCal for business and before she got on her plane to come back to Sacramento, she stopped and got me a Big Boy and flew it home to me. That was so special and I remember it to this day. It was cold, but tasted oh so good.

I think I dragged all my ex-wives to a Bob's Big Boy over the years with mixed results. But Bob's is still a special place for me, and since I am now single, I can go whenever I find one.

The original Bob's Big Boy cheeseburger resembles (in looks only) a Big Mac. The original Bob invented the hamburger by slicing a hamburger bun in three pieces and slid two patties in between the three bun pieces. He then added his sauce, relish and cheese. They always taste soooooo good.

Whenever I see a Bob's restaurant with the little fat boy out front, I head for their parking lot and a taste of heaven. Always have to make sure they make it with Thousand Island sauce, however. And then, before the first bite, I think of all the wonderful women who sat across from me over the years and were so happy watching me be happy.