So Long Old Friend

 

It’s a sad time in the greater Cincinnati region.  There is a business closing down across the area that has been an integral piece of Cincinnati culture and personality that has been around for a very long time.  Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants are a foundational piece of who we are.  And slowly but surely, they are disappearing from our landscape. 

In 1905 Samuel Frisch opened the first Frisch’s Café.  Not a direct ancestor of the current chain, but sorta like a great, great aunt.  There were originally 85 Big Boys across Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.  That number shrunk to 78 over time, but now, due to business dealings that did not work out, 20 of the sites are either closed, or soon to be closed. 

For many Cincinnatians the Big Boy chain was/is a large part of our everyday activities.  My brother, for instance, after the family moved to Florida, where there were no Big Boys, every visit back to Ohio, first thing for him was a Frisch’s Big Boy. When he moved back here for the final years of his life, almost every day it was a Big Boy for lunch.

For me, one of my earliest childhood memories was Dad, in our brand-new Studebaker station wagon backing into a light pole in Lebanon’s new Frisch’s parking lot.  Boy, was he upset…. had to be, for it to be such an indelible memory for me!!

Pete saying farewell to Big Boy

I was never a big fan; the Big Boy didn’t hold that allure for me.  But I did like their Sunday breakfast buffet.  So, when Pete learned that our Big Boy was closing down last Sunday, we went for our final breakfast.  It was sad, waitresses were crying, customers were hugging them, everyone was asking why?? 

But the inevitable came at 2 PM…. our Big Boy closed their doors for the last time.