With dining rooms closed during the pandemic, Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank has been gone back to its roots, serving customers in their vehicles through its revived carhop service.
It’s a blast from the past for the iconic location, which opened in 1949 and is the oldest remaining Bob’s Big Boy left in the country.
Like other restaurants, it had to revise its business model to stay afloat in the age of COVID-19, closing the dining room. That included bringing back carhop service, something the burger restaurant had for decades.
So if you’re craving the classic double-decker hamburger and an order of fries, you can still indulge in it during the pandemic — you’ll just have to phone in the order and wait for it in the comfort of your car.
“We’re actually serving people at their cars, with a tray on their window,” Darren Utley, the restaurant’s operations manager, told KTLA.
The once-24/7 diner has also adjusted its daily operating hours to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
And when dine-in service begins again at the location at 4211 West Riverside Drive, the burger restaurant’s 5,000-square-foot space will likely look different.
In preparation for reopening, Bob’s Big Boy has changed the layout of its tables to ensure social distancing and is even considering installing partitions around each booth.
“We may actually do some restaurant renovations and build partitions around each booth so that you’re in your own environment in each booth. It will be open to the server but not open to any other guests,” Utley said.
The California Department of Public Health released its COVID-19 guidance for dine-in restaurants earlier this week. It includes cleaning and disinfecting protocol as well as physical distancing and screening requirements.
In the meantime, to utilize the carhop service, customers place their order at 818-843-9334 and then wait in their vehicle for window-side service.
