The contract between the Michigan-based owners and the Glendale franchise expired years ago, said Jennifer Bourgoian, vice president and general counsel for the company.
The corporation allowed the Glenoaks restaurant to continue operating under a series of one-year contracts, and sometimes out of contract, for at least two years, but executives realized they were not able to hold the franchise owners to the same standards and requirements as other locations because of the unusually short lease, Bourgoian said.
Bob’s Big Boy representatives had visited the Glenoaks location and determined that the operations were “substandard,” she said.
“Any time one of our restaurants closes, it’s disappointing, obviously,” she said. “And we are sensitive to the fact that this was the [city where the first store was located], but when we come across a situation like this, we really don’t have any options.”
Executives made multiple requests for a new 20-year contract, but the franchise owners refused, she said.
Avanessian and his partners were ready to sign a new one-year contract, he said, but they declined offers for a long-term agreement because they wanted the flexibility to shutter the store if it began underperforming during the recession.
The restaurant’s trademark statue, of a chubby boy in checkered overalls with a swirling, 1950s-style hairdo, has already been removed, and visitors hoping to grab an all-American cheeseburger and “silver goblet” chocolate shake were stunned Thursday to learn of the change.
“It’s the end of an era,” said Judee Kendall, the executive director of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, adding that the loss of Glendale’s only Bob’s Big Boy would mean that its loyal following would turn to other locations. “That’s too bad.”
