Can’t wait, the burgers, the fries and the shakes of yesteryear; now if it only cost the same!

 Spaghetti and chili...or spaghetti and chili SIZE...when was the last time you had one of those?  Or Pappy Parker's FRIIIIIIIIIIEEEDDDD chicken!    MM MMM MMM 

I LOVED BBB when it was in the buiilding now a Carrow's on Oak Street.  My folks would take us there once a month of so when I was not yet a teen.   They had a weekly comic book with the adventures of Big Boy and his friends.  I will definitely be checking out the new building!

I think we all have great memories of BBB growing up.  It was one of the best places.  I loved their milkshakes that came in the cold silver goblets & a spoon...yum, yum!  We even had a BBB Jr at one time, I believe it was the 1st place I had ever gone to that had those self serve ice cream machines and all you could eat...double yum, yum!  It will interesting to see if they will still have that good ol' food like they did way back when.

My husband is going to be soooo happy about this.  He's actually sat around and told me stories about his Bob's Big Boy memories as a kid.  I guess he had a treasured Bob's Big Boy piggy bank as a kid, and he gave it to his favorite nephew many years ago.  When we had our son his Mom was so upset that the piggy bank got lost that she made a special stop in Barstow to get one for our son.

If you can believe it.

Frankly, I know I went there as a kid, but I don't remember it. 

And that's kind of a nutshell explanation of the many ways in which my husband and I are from two different planets.  ; )

Whattttttt (me screeching), you don't remember going to BBB?  What's wrong with you g.f.?!!!! 

LOL!  Sorry Love.  I don't know why Bob's Big Boy didn't leave an impression on me.  I have very clear memories of Dewar's and Mexicali and Sinaloa's, but not Bob's Big Boy.  I do know that I didn't like hamburgers until I hit my teens, and I never really liked french fries until I hit my twenties, so maybe that's why.

For me it is Mitchners~ dang I know that is spelled wrong! Old timers will know what I mean though~ a drive in with the absolute best burgers,milkshakes this town has ever seen.

BBB is okay~ and a spaghetti and chili size does evoke taste bud memories.

Personally, I wish Sambo's Restaurant would come back in town. They had the best whipped butter.

That is Santa Barbara for me Ward ~they had one of the first ones.Pancakes and whipped butter,what's not to like?....I still have a matchbook for the place.

The cockroaches in the BBB in Baker are pretty helpful giving travelers to Vegas hints on playing 21.  There was quite an establishment when I was last there.

When did Baker's Square close?  Shows you how much I get out.

Ward, I'm old enough to get it.  lol

I didn't know Bakers Square closed either.  Of course I never noticed when I was by there the other day.  I didn't like them anyway.

Friday or Saturday  cruise nights! Hot Rods, Car Hops and Big Boy Triple Decker cheeseburgers! I remember the BBB in Glendale, Been to the one in Burbank many times (usually on cruise night). Glad one is coming to Bakersfield....lets get one in Ridgecrest next!

My first 'real' job was at Bob's, back in HS.  I can still remember how to make the Big Boy, but had TOTALLY forgotten about the Chili Size. LOTS of memories about BBB. I worked for them in three different cities, the last being here on Oak St. Also worked at Baker's Sqaure and the restaurant that was there before it, Village Inn.

Oh oh oh = hot fudge cake.  There must be a resurgence of BBB as they are remodeling a restaurant here in paradise for a BBB.  Can't wait.

And Sambo's - Little Black Sambo.  My grandparents in Fresno used to take us as a treat for breakfast.  I still have a coffee cup and the Little Golden Book that they sold at the restaurant.  Good memories - thanks.

In the Midwest, it's Frisch's Big Boy and growing up that was my our family's restaurant of choice. Seemed like every Friday night (coincidently dad's pay day), we'd go to Frisch's for a Big Boy, fries and a drink. At one point, it had car hop service, a drive thru lane and the best chili in the world (I was only 7).

There were three Big Boys in my hometown at the time. Now, it's just one but it's the one we'd always go to. Last time I was in there, still had the same smoke stained-covered ceiling and '60-70s wood decor. My mom said the same waitress the waited on us 20-plus years ago is still working.

What I remember most is the chili (I loaded with crackers), a Big Boy slathered in their special sauce and hot fudge cake. And when my dad would get a side salad with french dressing, he'd always give me his cucumbers. Funny what we remember.

One last memory. My senior year of high school, we masterminded a plot to steal the Big Boy but after some recon, we realized how deep, and how much concrete was used to hold him down.

My last meal at Sambos (now La Mina on Oak St.) was a ham steak dinner.  That was the BEST.  You'll never see a resurgence of that one..not in our PC climate.

I don't remember the chili size at BBB but that's one of my favorite meals.  I'll give that a try when they open.   KInda inconvenient for me but I'll make the effort.

I don't remember the food, but I do remember the statue. I'm not suprised I don't remember the food, seeing as it turns out I've got food intolerances for most of the menu. But man, I can remember staring at the statue as a kid quite frequently, so we must have eaten there often.

I first went to Bob's Big Boy in Dallas, Texas, when I was in grade school (about 50 years ago). Always had a soft spot for them.

My favorite memory of Sambo's was a blonde waitress in Atascadero and the beach trip we took. She was the only woman I met in my life who described her body as squishy. Well, squishy was pretty nice. 

Sambo's was where the chamber of commerce met in Atascadero back in the mid-70s.

Woo hoo!  Can't wait!  Do you think they will have big screens to watch NASCAR on???  Ha!  Anyone remember Mark & Brian?  The radio guys from LA that used be be the KRAB morning show?  They had a Bob's Big Boy statue that they used to drive around in the Mark & Brian Mobile.  They would do some of the craziest stunts involving poor Bob.  Absolutely hilarious!  We used to go to the one on Oak, had some guys in the group that would fling pancakes up in the air to try to get them to stick to the ceiling...  My daughter picked up a piggy bank a while bank in a vintage store in LA.  She will have to learn the ways of the Bob!

Bobs kept us alive back in the early 70's in San Jose....wife was a waitress best friend and guy that shared rent on a house cooked there for a couple of years while I slaved away at Memorex....they brought home food all the time .sometimes when we were low on money we would buy a hunk of their cheese from the manager and eat sandwiches for a week waiting for pay day..didnt seem like we were starvin it was just a way of life for a bunch of punk kids turning into adults back then..

He also cut his teeth cooking at the Sambos we had on Palm and Oak here in B town..we spent many late nights in the back room muchin and yappin with him at work during a self induced beer fest..He got me on and I cooked one breakfast one time after a 2 day training period of about 2 1/2 hours and said no thanks.. maybe if I would have started on a night shift and worked my way up..but a breakfast on a weekend..you gotta be freakin insane to just walk into something like that....worst part was converting the waitress lingo to the english language...seems like a hundred years ago..

Maybe Ill go by and order a cheese sandwich just for old times sake

BBB holds a lot of great family memories for me.  We use to go to the one that use to be up on Mt. Vernon (Carrow's Kitchen now).  I remember they had cork ceiling tiles and my brothers would shoot toothpicks through straws to see if they could make them stick up there.  Boy, when they were caught, they got that "wait until you get home" look. 

Man, is it lunchtime yet? You guys are making me hungry......

I will never, as long as I live, buy "Little Black Sambo" anything, nor Uncle Ben's Rice, nor Aunt Jemima syrup, or anything else along those lines. It's degrading and humiliating and insulting to me and my children and all of our ancestors.

Was BBB on the East side of Mt Vernon?  I was thinking it was on the West side where Sizzler is.  Been too long for me to be sure.

Courtenay, that's why it's no longer in business.  There USED to be a Sambos here.  Used to be.

You can probably have a Geronomo's or a Guidos Italian or any number of Mexican Restaurants but you won't see a Sambos around here.  There's Bill Lees Chinese and Mr Tibbs Ribs but no Sambos

Courtenay, don't be so sensitive. Every group in America can claim something in the media or advertising that they feel was insulting to their race, religion, etc., in the past. Sambos was around as a chain restaurant when society was different than it is today. That is why they are no longer a chain. Heck, even the only Sambos in Santa Barbara has the little boy in their logo picture as a little white boy next to a tiger.

Did you sing nursery rhymes to you children when they were small? Or are they too insulting also?

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Nancy, there also used to be a Sambos at E.18th and Union, in what is now the Casa Munoz restaurant. When I was courting my first wife in 1976 she worked there as a waitress. The manager always made sure he had a couple of young male waiters working the midnight shift on Friday and Saturday nights. That was because the drunks from the nearby bars would come in at 2am and do a "dine and dash". The male waiters would chase them down and give them the option to return and pay or they would call the poo-poo. (But not from their cellular phones... they had not been invented yet).

I think Bob's Big Boy was off Ashe/CA Ave by the McDonalds.  I remember going there once when I was a kid and my cousin getting relly pissed at our waiter.  When I lived in Indiana, I went to Fricth's a couple of times.  I think they are part of teh same chain.

Courtenay-  Have you noticed how Aunt Jemima gotten her groove back?  They gave her a new hairdo and she's lost weight.  She no longer has as much of the "Mamsie" look.

Ward I'd forgotten about that one.  There are soooo many coffee shops that are gone or taken over that it's hard to remember them all.

Was I the only one to catch your reference to the tiger and the tree?  Did no one else read those books?

Has anyone ever gone onto the internet and watched banned cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Japanese during WWII?

The pimp in the zoot suit?  (of course kids didn't know why he dressed like that)  Those older cartoons were geared more for adults than kids.

Ashe and Ca Ave?    You sure about that?

No, I'm not.  I was 4 or 5 when Bob's Big Boy went out of business. 

Nancy, I was wondering who would catch my comment about the whipped butter. Sometimes being young IS NOT an advantage.

Jf, it's not about where BBB was it's trying to picture Ashe and CA Ave.  CA curves and ends at Stockdale Hwy.  Ash begins at Stockdale about a mile West of CA and goes South.

You lost me..lol.  Maybe you were thinking of CA and Oak since it was just South of CA there.

My bad.  I can't think of the name of the street that runs parallel to 99 off CA Ave by the McDonald's.  I guess I've been away from home too long.  It's not Oak (Oak turns into Wible, right?).  It's the other (west) side of 99.

It's Real Rd. jfrancais.

lol.  Thanks, Ward.  I had a case of Bakersfield Amnesia.

No problem jfrancais. I was always amazed that East California Ave. becomes California Ave., then it becomes New Stine Rd., and finally Stine Rd.

I think all the people who wanted to be engineers and couldn't get accepted to Cal Poly went to BC, and then went to work for the City of Bakersfield.

Nancy, I recall the Mt. Vernon BBB being on the east side of the road nestled right next to the offramp from 178W. According to Google, it is a Carrows now. I haven't been by there lately though. Funny, I can't remember the food, but I can remember the statue and the side of the road. Probably because the church we went to was up there, so we went to eat in that area a lot on Sundays.

This is a memory from my grandmother:

My husband passed away in 2001. His name was Charles Mara. Born and raised in Glendale, CA; the home of the FIRST and ORIGINAL  Bob's Big Boy. Years ago his aunt used to play cards with Bob Wian's mother. We ate many memorable meals at Bob's.

We lived in Orange County. One day my husband said we were going out to lunch. I asked where and he said you will see. We drove over thirty miles just to go to Bob's in Burbank.

Buried with my husband is a Bob's Big Boy lighter. Boy, do my children and I have many many memories with him at Bob's.

Since the death of my husband I have taken my grandchildren to Bob's in Burbank; now that I've moved to Bakersfield. My oldest granddaughter loves the Chili Spaghetti! 

I'm glad that there will be a Bob's Big Boy here in Bakersfield. It is by far my favorite place. And now I won't have to drive to Burbank for some great food!

-Janice Mara

As a former employee I can tell you where the BBB were in the mid-80s; Oak St., Wilson Rd, and Mt. Vernon Ave. The Oak and Mt. Vernon Bob's became Carrows. Can't recall what became of the one in the K-Mart parking lot on Wilson.

I also worked in the Bob's in Rancho Cucamonga in 79-80 (Sr yr of HS) and if the statue of the Big Boy was missing I  was ALWAYS the first one called by management. It was usually hidden somewhere at the HS. Ahh.....good times!