Memories of the Montrose Bob’s Big Boy – Part 5

This wraps up the collection of memories from the Montrose Bob’s Big Boy, located at 3212 La Crescenta Ave. Here are the last of those cherished memories:

“Everyone keeps saying chocolate shakes. They were called silver goblets! Came in a silver metal container. I always added nuts on the side. Yum. After football games (1972-1975) we would go and get fries with blue cheese dressing on the side and a hot fudge cake! My mom would take us there, too, and we would sit in a booth and get a Big Boy combo (no relish, add avocado) and a chocolate silver goblet (side of nuts). The good old days.”

“I practically grew up there, starting in about 1955 with family, then going there regularly with friends. When Clark Jr. High School became Crescenta Valley High School in September 1960, it was thee meeting place after CV football games. It was lots and lots of fun but it was so crowded. You were bumping into people with every step. Often by the time we could get from our table to the cash register by the front door, we ‘forgot’ to pay our check.”

“My grandparents lived on Las Palmas by Fremont Elementary. We would always walk to Bob’s with my grandma. She’d always order me a ‘patty on a bun.’ I was little and a picky eater, so the Big Boy would have to wait. I remember the brown bar with the numbers on it, the long bench for waiting, the counter and bar stools, the old time 1960s clock on the wall. In high school, friends and I would pile in there on weekend nights until closing. Big Boys, fudge sundaes, Coke, and extra crispy French fries. It closed in ’88, I graduated in ’89. I’m so lucky that Bob’s was there for my formative years. Great memories then, and now.”

Here’s one last one from former Glendale City Councilman John Drayman:

“In 2008, during my term as mayor, I made a push to bring a Bob’s Big Boy back to Glendale, where it all started. At that time, the Montrose Shopping Park was full with operating businesses and there were no empty stores. However, there was the issue of Rocky Cola Café and their closure. Said mayor so relentlessly pursued Bob’s corporate offices that the corporation finally relented and sent executives out to Montrose to meet with me to discuss opening a Bob’s Big Boy in the Montrose Shopping Park. And so it was that on one bright, shining, autumn midweek workday afternoon in 2008, representatives from Bob’s Big Boy took a walk through the shopping park, having done their research, and recognizing what newspapers and magazines were referring to as the ‘Renaissance of Montrose.’ They walked and looked and walked some more and looked some more and then turned to me and said, ‘Where the hell are all the people who should be out and about having lunch here?’ In those days, the proliferation of restaurants had only just begun and most of them had primarily a dinner clientele. Most of the lunch trade was made up of local merchants. The bottom had just fallen out of the U.S. economy. Merchants were reeling and patrons of the stores were staying away in droves trying to figure out their personal finances. This was the main reason no one was on the street enjoying lunch in Montrose that day. The executives from Bob’s corporate concluded that there was not enough foot traffic or business in the Montrose Shopping Park to support a Bob’s Big Boy. The exception, they said, was if they could lease or purchase, what was at that time, Faye’s at the northeast corner of Honolulu and Ocean View. As you can imagine, that was going to be a no-go with Pat Grant.”

Thanks, John. Timing is everything! We could have had a Bob’s in the now empty Faye’s building.

Thanks to everyone for sending in memories, and remember, “It’s your Big Boy. Twice as Big, Twice as Good. A Meal in One, on a Double–Deck Bun!”