SAMMICHES & SPAM
The Culinary
MAN-ifesto
said nostalgia. Some said they
loved the food. One memorable
anecdote stated it’s what our
parents and grandparents ate to
rail against McDonald’s.
Upon further research and
guidance from friends, I found out
our beloved Bismarck location is
something more than just a Big
Boy. Something far more cool.
It’s a
“Rogue Franchise”..
something magical,
like a unicorn.
There’s a Dairy Queen in
Moorhead, MN that still has their
original franchise agreement intact
from 1949, which allows them
to do things that their corporate
parent doesn’t necessarily want
them to do. They can keep serving
discontinued flavors, etc.
The Line
Story and photos by Adam Steen
BIG BOY
2511 E Main Ave
Bismarck, ND 58501
Big. Boy.
Yeah, the giant statue
that Dr. Evil escapes in
at the beginning of Austin
Powers.
There are only 96 of
them in the United
States, 83 of which are
in Michigan where their
corporate headquarters
is located.
North Dakota has only
one. I’ve been living
in Bismarck for the
better part of 11 years,
and always took it for
granted that Big Boy was
just something larger
cities had. My fresh-
out- of-culinary school
sensibilities even scoffed
at the notion of how
many people were in that
drive-through line every
time I cruised by.
me. Pizza Burger Flying
Style, Fries and Gravy,
Poppers, Brown Cow.
Then I learned.
Someone, I don’t
remember who, insisted
I at least try it out. We
went, waited in the line,
and my friend ordered for
Not too long ago, I
took an interest in the
franchise itself. I posted
to social media, asking
people about why
they go there. Some
They gained a customer
for life that day.
alone restaurants
in Bismarck. They
forced Big Boy to
quit using the KFC
name, but didn’t
require them to stop
serving the chicken.
This, accompanied
by the fact that
they don’t have an
actual dining room,
allowed for them to
have a completely
different menu
than the rest of the
franchises across
the US.
If you go to their
corporate website,
almost everything
is different, with
the exception of
some of the classic
burgers and a
few sides. We’ve
still got the Pizza
Burger, Alpine
Burger, Coney
Dog, Poppers, Hot
’n’ Tot’s (cola with
a cinnamon flavor
added), and the
Chicken. Other
locations don’t even have the Brown or Purple Cows anymore! For
those of you not familiar with the Cows, they’re effectively Coke or
Grape Soda milkshakes, and they’re delicious.
The Big Boy in Bismarck was
not approved for their franchise
when the owners came in and
just kind of set up shop in 1954.
They operated under the name
Big Boy Drive-Inn until 1960 when
they ended up signing a franchise
agreement to become McDowell’s
Big Boy. Later on, it was renamed
to simply Bismarck Big Boy. Until
the 1970’s, it was also a KFC, or
at least served KFC food since the Now, into the second part of my “research”: Full disclosure, I really
owners also had a KFC franchise. just wanted to go to Big Boy. My girlfriend and I got into the car, and
drove to what I’m going to refer to in this article as The Line. The
Something akin to those A & W
Line is always there. At least, I’ve never seen it without The Line.
Long John Silver’s restaurants
I’m sure Nicci will include one of the photos I took of The Line, for
you see from time to time. From
reference.
what I understand, they were one
of the earliest KFC franchises
The nice thing about it, though, is that you have plenty of time to
in the country. Then Colonel
make up your mind. This, with me, is always a battle. I need that
Sanders sold KFC to a larger
time, so I appreciate The Line. We ended up going with a mix of
company in the 1970’s, who
some of the menu items thatyou can find at all of the locations, and
decided that they wanted standa couple that you can only get here.
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