'Eating there was special.' Frisch's Big Boy struggles to lure back customers

Like legions of Greater Cincinnati natives, Ann Stewart grew up going to Frisch's Big Boy .

Raised in the suburb of Wyoming, Stewart's connection to restaurant brand dates back to family outings in the 1960s as a child and later with teenage friends in the 1970s. But like a lot of Cincinnatians, she feels the local chain has gone downhill since it was acquired by an out-of-town investment firm in 2015.

"Frisch's was a significant part of our lives ... I think that's why people in Cincinnati feel let down by the company," Stewart told The Enquirer. “Overall the quality is not what it used to be. I think people in Cincy want more from Frisch’s because so many of us have deep memories of when eating there was special.”

In recent years, nostalgia has not been enough for Frisch’s. The diner and its peers have struggled as many eateries have yet to recover pre-COVID-19 sales.

This spring, Frisch’s disclosed it was shutting down five of its diners: two in Cincinnati suburbs, two in Northern Kentucky and one in Dayton. The latest round of closures brought the beloved chain to a milestone: in the nine years since it was taken over by an Atlanta private equity firm, it has cut as much as a third of its restaurants.

Amid the turmoil, longtime Frisch’s customers say they’ve noticed a decline in the icon’s food quality and service, as well as the cleanliness of its locations.

And customers aren’t the only ones who are complaining. Travis Maier, who works in the culinary industry and is the great-grandson of Frisch’s founder David Frisch, said he is not happy with the direction company has taken and is jeopardizing its connection with Cincinnati.

“I am embarrassed, personally, to go there and have people associate it with me,” he said.

In interviews with The Enquirer, Frisch’s CEO James Walker acknowledged the chain experimented with some menu items it later dropped but declared the icon is back to basics, cutting prices and operating smoothly. Walker, who took over in August 2022, downplayed the significance of the recent closures and noted last summer Frisch’s opened its newest location in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport . He added "at this point in time" there was no plan to close any more stores.

“The key to Frisch’s is focusing on the same quality they’ve been offering for 76 years but finding a way to do so for value to our customers,” Walker said.

But Walker’s assurances are vague and his numbers fuzzy.

Walker said the company runs or franchises 88 restaurants in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, but Frisch’s website lists only 79 locations. Depending on whichever is correct, Frisch’s has lost at least a quarter and up to a third of the 121 restaurants it had before the acquisition by NRD Capital in 2015.

Walker declined to provide a restaurant list but promised the marketing team would update the website. Walker, who also has a senior management role in another venture with the private equity firm, said he wasn't sure when he last visited a Frisch’s.

“I don’t know – (I go) as much as I can,” Walker said. “I crave Big Boys as much as anybody.”

‘The ownership has changed everything that was good about it’

As Frisch’s adjusts to a turbulent industry and consumers worry about the economy, longtime customers expressed mixed feelings about the direction of the beloved eatery.

Debbie Branscum, a 39-year-old event producer, grew up in Cincinnati and said Frisch’s used to be a staple for her. When she moved away to Chicago, one of her first stops when she came home for a visit was a bowl of soup or a burger at Frisch’s. While Branscum now lives in Northern Kentucky, she rarely goes to Frisch’s anymore.

“The ownership has changed everything that was good about it,” she said. “It is absolutely disappointing. Each time I go, something has changed, and it’s not an improvement.”

Other diner restaurants are struggling to grow and please customers. Some have also agreed to be acquired and faced middling results:

• Ohio-based Bob Evans sold out to a private equity firm in 2017 after years of skinny profits. It is reportedly up for sale , the second time this decade.
• Friendly’s sputtered for years after emerging from a 2011 bankruptcy and closed hundreds of locations. It was acquired by an investment firm in 2021.
• Perkins , which began in the late 1950s here in Silverton, closed more than one out of five of its locations after it was acquired out of bankruptcy in 2019.

Diner restaurants that haven’t changed ownership are also facing challenges.

One out of 12 Denny’s restaurants have closed in the past five years, according to its corporate filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission .

Meanwhile, IHOP and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store have barely grown but have acquired and are investing in new restaurant concepts.

‘To keep true to their core beliefs … while updating food and customer experience’

In 2022, Frisch’s Big Boy hailed the hiring of Walker as an “accomplished restaurant industry veteran” with a “storied career.” Specifically, the company said Walker had been “instrumental” as a senior executive in Subway’s “menu transformation” and its remodeling, and he had similarly overhauled the sandwich menu of Nathan’s Famous. The company praised Walker’s track record of “working with legacy brands to keep true to their core beliefs and culture while updating the food and customer experience.”

One of Walker’s first moves at Frisch’s was to put maple-bourbon baby back ribs and a sous vide chicken on the menu alongside staples such as the Big Boy double-decker burger and signature hot fudge cake.

Walker said Frisch’s dropped the experimental offerings after about six months despite positive feedback.

“Frisch’s customers enjoyed them,” Walker said of the gourmet offerings. “But we thought offering items that were lower in cost became more and more important and moved the menu in that direction.”

Given rising food costs and the growing sense of sticker shock customers feel when perusing restaurant menus , Walker said many people are staying away from restaurants altogether. He cited a recent Lending Tree survey that found 80% of Americans now view fast food as a luxury. “We don’t see Frisch’s as a luxury, but that’s a pretty disturbing fact for me.”

He added Frisch’s has lowered its prices and created a loyalty program. According to the most recent menu on Frisch’s website, the price of classic items remain relatively low. A Big Boy still costs around $4, fish and chips cost $6.99 and a turkey dinner with two sides is $7.99.

Walker insisted the cutting doesn’t compromise quality at Frisch’s. He said the food is still made from scratch in Frisch’s commissary kitchen in East Walnut Hills, and that he is especially proud of the beef used for the restaurant’s famous burgers.

“It is prepared fresh with a high-quality proprietary blend,” he said. “I would argue that the meat is as high quality as it has ever been.”

When asked about stores that appeared dirty or understaffed, he brushed them off as isolated incidents.

Frisch’s in the age of 'rapid returns'

Still, Walker didn’t have answers for some other basic questions. He declined to discuss Frisch’s sales performance, noting it’s now a privately-held company. Though Walker’s social media accounts indicate he lives in the New York City metropolitan area, he declined to say where he lives.

On his X (formerly Twitter) profile , Walker mentions he’s the CEO of Frisch’s Big Boy but also describes himself as a “WINEnthusiast & EPICurean.” Interests he has hashtagged include: cheese, food and wine, fasting, fishing, dogs, Duke University, New York City and the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust.

"Great pairing. MAINE SCALLOPS - chanterelle mushroom, english peas, saffron, crisp leeks and the Aubert. Wicked." Walker posted June 7.

"Amazing 1964 Petrus!" Walker posted May 25.

Tweets by jwalkermobile

It appears Frisch’s owner, Atlanta-based NRD Capital, is keeping Walker pretty busy: Frisch’s CEO is also the “chief culinary and concept officer” for another company in Atlanta called Experiential Brands , according to his LinkedIn profile . That venture is headed by NRD’s founder and managing partner, Aziz Hashim .

On its website, Experiential Brands describes itself as “a portfolio of quick service and fast casual restaurant brands” that “deliver rapid returns” for franchisees. The company is soliciting franchisees to run concepts like The Original Hot Chicken , Inked Tacos , Flametown Burgers and Pinsa Roman Pizza .

Frisch’s descendant displeased: ‘It’s hard to find anyone who will make eye contact with you’

Travis Maier, David Frisch’s great-grandson, said he is unhappy with how Frisch’s Big Boy has been operated since it was sold.

The Frisch’s Maier remembers is one where everyone was greeted immediately, often by name, and taken to their seat. “Now it’s a place where it’s hard to find anyone who will even make eye contact with you,” he said.

Despite his disappointment, Maier, who still works in the restaurant industry, has sympathy for what the owners are going through. “It is tough to find employees right now, so you can’t say that they aren’t trying,” he said. “The service industry is a real struggle.”

The Maiers had their own frustration running Frisch’s Big Boy. The family that ran it for three generations struggled mightily for decades to grow the company before selling.

Between Frisch’s Big Boy and other restaurant concepts, the company tried franchising as far away as Florida and Texas. The company at one time had two hotels, a horse farm and even a 7.5% stake in the Cincinnati Reds.

The Maier family’s last bid to expand Frisch’s was becoming a franchisee of Golden Corral buffet eateries. Between 1999 and 2007, the company spent more than $100 million building 35 buffet restaurants before rising food prices squeezed profits and forced the company to exit the venture.

“All those businesses worked for a while … but when they stopped making money, we went back to our base,” then-CEO Craig Maier said in a 2014 interview.

Despite the ups and downs then and now, Frisch’s retains hard-core fans.

Janyl Ricketts, 52, has loved Frisch’s Big Boy most of her life.

Growing up in suburban Finneytown, her family ate Sunday breakfast at the buffet. Her brother worked for the restaurant company’s HVAC maintenance team and always brought Frisch’s pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. When she became a mother herself, Frisch’s became a handy “go-to” treat for her and her son, Lucas.

“I have loads of good memories about Frisch’s,” Ricketts said. “The Big Boy is still good!”

Vicky Mary, a 75-year-old travel agent who lives in Walnut Hills, said while the service might not be what it used to be, given the staffing challenges many restaurants still face years after COVID, she’s willing to give Frisch’s a pass.

“I always give restaurants lots of space for service problems these days,” she said. “I still go to the Mainliner. I get the grilled cheese with tomato and the vegetable soup or scrambled eggs with potatoes. It’s always good.”

Frisch's Big Boy new owner attempted to refresh the icon

NRD Capital made several changes at Frisch’s Big Boy after it acquired the company for $175 million in 2015. The new owners touted a “franchise growth strategy” and pumped millions into the iconic brand.

They refurbished stores , refreshed the mascot , introduced new menu items and even returned to downtown Cincinnati with great fanfare after a decade’s absence. While NRD Capital put money into refreshing Frisch’s after the acquisition, it also took money out: It sold most of the locations with a majority of the properties now owned by an Orlando-based real estate company .

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit , Frisch’s had to rethink some strategy. The company closed stores and changed CEOs .

Industry experts say diner restaurants’ “something for everybody” approach that made them ubiquitous in the 1950s, 1960 and 1970s, makes them vulnerable to losing customers as the industry has grown, overbuilt and specialized.

“So these concepts are very popular with the older demographic,” Alex Susskind, the director of the Food and Beverage Institute at Cornell University ’s business school, said. “The (customer) demographic that was supporting these ... I hate to say it, they're literally dying.”

Frisch's timeline

1939

Frisch’s founder David Frisch opens the Mainliner restaurant.

1946

Frisch introduces the Big Boy sandwich in his restaurant with the permission of the concept from California-based Bob Wian, whom he met at an industry event. Frisch adds his own spin to the burger, swapping out Thousand Island dressing for his signature tartar sauce.

1947

Frisch’s opens his first Frisch’s Big Boy after becoming one of the first franchisees to license Big Boy from Wian. The new restaurant is near downtown Cincinnati on Central Parkway and has an eight-seat counter and 60 parking spaces for carhop service. Jack Maier first joins the company as a part-time carhop and marries Frisch’s youngest daughter, Blanche, a year later.

1952

Frisch’s Big Boy statue debuts in front of the restaurants.

1960

Frisch’s Big Boy begins selling pint jars of its signature tartar sauce to customers at the cash register. The company goes public in an initial public offering.

1970

The popular hot fudge cake debuts. Jack Maier becomes president after Frisch dies.

1982

Breakfast and salad bars are introduced into the dining room.

1983

The Hartwell restaurant introduces the first drive-thru at Frisch’s, speeding the end of the carhop era.

1989

Frisch’s launches its “What’s your favorite thing?” slogan. Craig Maier becomes chief executive.

1993

Frisch’s begins selling its jarred tartar sauce in grocery stores.

2001

Frisch’s ends its franchise relationship, acquiring exclusive control of Big Boy name in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

2015

Frisch’s Big Boy is acquired by Atlanta-based NRD Capital for $175 million.

Why is it called Frisch’s Big Boy?

The first ever Big Boy sandwich was created as a “joke” by Bob Wian in 1937 at his hamburger stand in Glendale, California, then called Bob’s Pantry. It quickly became a local favorite. The inspiration for the famous name came from an early 6-year-old “superfan” of the sandwich, whom Wian at one point playfully addressed as “Big Boy.”

The growing popularity of the burger prompted Wian to change the name of his restaurant to Bob’s Big Boy. He eventually opened 22 restaurants, but at the height of the brand’s popularity there were more than 1,000 Big Boy restaurants through franchising.

Among the earliest franchisees was David Frisch. But other early franchisees were: Fred, John and Louis Elias, who ran Elias Brothers Big Boys mostly in Michigan; business partners Larry Hatch and William Peters, whose Eat’n Park chain in Pittsburgh began as a Big Boy franchise; and Alex Schoenbaum , whose Parkette Big Boys eventually became Shoney’s .

Wian sold his interest in Big Boy to Marriott in 1967, which ran the company for two decades. In 1987, franchisees the Elias Brothers acquired the company, which they operated until its 2000 bankruptcy. Michigan investor Robert Liggett Jr. purchased the company in 2000 before selling it in 2018 to the Michigan investment group that currently operates the company.

Iconic diner brands are either cutting back or adding few new locations, while they invest in new concepts

Denny’s

The chain had 1,573 locations nationwide at the end of 2023, down 136 locations or 8% from the 1,709 restaurants five years before.

In 2022, the company acquired a new breakfast concept Keke’s, which now has 58 locations.

International House of Pancakes (IHOP)

Parent company Dine Brands currently has 1,814 IHOP restaurants as of the end of 2023, down 16 locations or 1% from the 1,831 restaurants in 2018. The parent company has seen more than 100 Applebee’s locations close during the same period.

In 2022, Dine Brands acquired the Fuzzy’s Taco Shops chain with 131 locations.

Cracker Barrel

The company operates 661 restaurants as of the end of 2023, six or or 1% more than the 655 at the end of 2018.

In 2019, the company acquired the breakfast and lunch-focused concept Maple Street Biscuit Co., which it has nearly doubled to 59 locations.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'Eating there was special.' Frisch's Big Boy struggles to lure back customers