Frisch's Big Boy (AMEX: FRS) is a regional restaurant chain from the Big Boy franchise. Today there are over ninety restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. Frisch's also owns numerous Golden Corral restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Frisch's is one of the longest surviving Big Boy franchises.
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In 1905, Samuel Frisch opened the Frisch Cafe in Cincinnati, Ohio. He continued to operate the cafe until his death in 1923. Three of Samuel's sons, David, Reuben and Irving, continued operating their father's cafe after his death. It was not until 1939 that expansion occurred with the opening of the Mainliner on Wooster Pike in Fairfax. Cincinnati's first year-round drive-in, it was named after a passenger airplane flying overhead into nearby Lunken Airport.
In 1932, Dave Frisch visited one of Bob Wian's Big Boy restaurants in California. Dave was impressed with the double-decker sandwich, although he decided to change the primary condiment from Thousand Island dressing to a homemade tartar sauce. This made Frisch's stand out from the rest of the Big Boy restaurants. Frisch's tartar sauce became the signature sauce in other meals, as well. In 1948, the first Frisch's Big Boy restaurant, "Big Boy One," opened on Central Parkway a short drive north of downtown Cincinnati. Although the look has changed, Frisch's still operates in that location today.
In 1949, Frisch's opened its first restaurant in Kentucky, and, over the next decade, it expanded throughout southern Ohio and into Indiana. Early restaurants built during this time offered carhop services. With many opportunities, franchisees opened restaurants throughout the tri-state area, which helped Frisch's grow and expand (eventually reaching as far north as Columbus and Toledo, as far east as Athens and Lancaster, Ohio and as far south as Florida). Frisch's released its famous tartar sauce to local grocery stores in 1960. However, times were changing. Frisch's faced competition from numerous restaurants, both national and local. McDonald's introduced the Filet-O-Fish in 1963 in an aggressive campaign against Frisch's. Some Frisch's restaurants did close in the 1970s and 1980s, but the company persevered in the remaining market and avoided extinction. Dave Frisch passed away in 1970, but he had already retired from the day-to-day activities of the business which had been taken up by his family. That's how it remains today.
In 1982, Frisch's began to reinvent itself by adding drive-thru service at many restaurants. It introduced the soup and salad bar, which had begun to be implemented by many fast-food eateries. With these introductions, Frisch's had to remodel older restaurants or tear them down and rebuild from the ground up to stay competitive. As a result, carhops were no longer a fixture at Frisch's, but were retained at a few Cincinnati locations to cater to diners seeking the nostalgic dining experience. While other Big Boy franchises died off, became separate eateries, or filed for bankruptcy, Frisch's Big Boy developed new concepts, including the introduction of a retro theme in newer restaurants. However, Frisch's closed their locations in Florida by the 1990s.
In 2000, Frisch's had the opportunity to purchase the national Big Boy chain, which was in bankruptcy, but declined the offer. As of June 2003, Frisch's operates restaurants and franchises another thirty-two to other Big Boy operations. Restaurants in the Toledo, Ohio, area are owned and operated by Bennett Enterprises under the Frisch's name.
The Frisch's Restaurant on Brice Road, Columbus, Ohio, was closed December 13, 2011.
It is constructed as follows, from top to bottom:
Radio and TV commercials for Frisch's (which operates Big Boy in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area) are considered by many locals to be a source of humor, even though many of these advertisements were intended to be serious. A notable example is an advertising jingle from the "Gotta be Frisch's Big Boy" campaign of the early 1980s.
The Frisch's slogan being used in commercials today is What's your favorite thing?
A classic Frisch's jingle used on both Radio & TV in the 1960s went:
Drive in for a Big, Big. Big Boy. Drive in for an eat-in treat. A meal in one on a double-deck bun What a joy. Big Boy.
The Frisch's adaptation of the Big Boy characture of the 1960s has bigger cartoon-like eyes and slightly cherub-like youthful facial features and wears striped pants instead of the traditional checkered bib overall-type pants used by other Big Boy franchises. Today the Frisch's mascot now sports the checkered pants more often in advertising but its facial features remain the same as it did in the 1960s.