A turf war between operators of the Big Boy family-dining brand has ended in a win for the home team.
Michigan-based Big Boy Restaurant Group (BBRG) this week said that it plans to close six locations that it opened earlier this year in the Cincinnati area, a market that has long belonged to rival Frisch’s Big Boy.
The six restaurants were branded as Dolly’s Burgers and Shakes, though the company intended to eventually operate them as Big Boys. But a March restraining order filed against it by Frisch’s has prevented it from rebranding the stores, which ultimately led BBRG to bow out of the market.
“Despite the dedication of its team members and the support of the community, the litigation remains unsolved, and the company is still unable to operate under the Big Boy name in this market,” BBRG told the local Fox news station. “After careful evaluation, Big Boy Restaurant Group has determined that continuing to operate under these conditions is no longer sustainable or beneficial for its employees [or] brand.”
The dispute stems from the unusual history of the Big Boy brand. Founded in 1936 in California as Bob’s Big Boy, it later went national through franchising. In 2000, the predecessor of BBRG acquired the chain, but made a deal with Frisch’s, one of its largest operators, that gave it exclusive rights to the Big Boy trademark in Indiana, Kentucky, and parts of Ohio and Tennessee. BBRG, meanwhile, could operate the brand everywhere else.
Today, BBRG and Frisch’s are separate companies, though their restaurants share the same name and a similar look and menu.
For over two decades, they stuck to their specified territories, until early this year, when BBRG saw an opportunity to move onto Frisch’s turf.
Frisch’s has struggled. Last October, it was evicted as the operator of 64 restaurants by landlord NNN Reit over unpaid rent. NNN then re-leased 28 of those restaurants to another operator: Big Boy Restaurant Group.
With the help of a private investigator, Frisch’s discovered that BBRG planned to operate the restaurants as Big Boys, which it said violated their agreement. A judge agreed, approving Frisch's request for a restraining order against BBRG. That forced the company to pivot to operating the stores as Dolly’s, which was the name of Big Boy’s girlfriend in promotional comic books produced by the chain.
At that point, it was days away from opening its first two locations, and did not yet have signage, uniforms or other materials with Dolly’s branding.
Both BBRG and Frisch's have faced declining sales and store closures. BBRG sales fell 12% last year as it closed seven locations, and Frisch’s sales plummeted more than 50% as its unit count was cut by more than half, according to Technomic data.
Today, BBRG has more than 50 locations, mostly in Michigan and California. Frisch’s has 31 in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Neither company responded to a request for comment for this story.
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