The First Big Boy Restaurant in Michigan: 1952
Fancy restaurants are okay for a treat, or if you want to impress someone...but family restaurants are more relaxing, not as expensive, and not as uptight. My favorite has always been the Big Boy restaurants.
I’ve been going to Big Boy ever since I was a kid, and I usually get the Big Boy double decker hamburger. When I go there for breakfast, it’s eggs over easy and a hamburger steak. Big Boy has never let me down. It was a real drag when the Big Boy at Lansing’s Frandor shopping area closed many years ago.
It got me wondering, though – where was Michigan’s very first Big Boy restaurant located?
Michigan’s first Big Boy franchise opened in Hazel Park back in 1952. Owned by the Elias Brothers, they opened many more, over 100 within the state. The Hazel Park location was 22700 John R Road, in a building that was formerly the Dixie Drive-In. Unfortunately, it was torn down during the 1960s to make way for the construction of I-75.
It was 1936 when the first Big Boy opened in Glendale, California by Bob Wian. The double-decker Big Boy burger was created when a customer came in and asked for something unusual...not your normal everyday meal. As for the mascot – Big Boy himself – it was inspired by a boy in overalls who would come to Bob’s Big Boy and sweep the floors in exchange for a free hamburger.
The first location in Hazel Park kicked off Elias Brothers’ connection with Big Boys in Michigan and their locations became Michigan’s first official Big Boy franchise. It’s a shame that first Big Boy wasn’t preserved, or at least they could’ve built I-75 to go around it...