We couldn't do a proper tribute to Late Night Eats in Los Angeles without a visit to the original Late Night Eats establishment, the one that started it all, the restaurant that embodies the very essence of car-hopping, car-worshiping SoCal burger culture: Bob's Big Boy.

The Big Boy Burger was born in Glendale in 1936, the brainchild of Bob Wian (I know, the alliteration is getting a bit much for me too); the Burbank branch opened in 1949 and immediately became a key site in Angeleno fast-food folklore. From The Beatles to David Lynch to The Beach Boys, it seems like everybody who's ever been anybody has indulged in a Big Boy meal at least a time or two, and fast-food pilgrims from all over the country wend their way to the Riverside Drive branch to take in the architectural sites and traditional diner fare.

But the restaurant has changed dramatically since those early halcyon days of the Los Angeles fast-food revolution: my east coast friends tell me that Bob's is notorious only for its chain of low-cost, low-quality rest stop-cum-diners that line the toll roads in places like Jersey. The horror! The horror!

Bob's may not be the restaurant my parents remember (and they really do remember it, since they grew up in the Golden Age of California Fast Food), but it still has a certain charm to it. The Burbank branch has been designated a California Point of Historical Interest, thanks much in part to its unique 40's-modern architecture and unmistakable signage.

But I know what you're asking -- enough with the shop talk, is it good late night eats? The place is open 24 hours, it has a huge parking lot, and if you're in the Toluca Lake-Burbank area and desperate for a meal at, say, two or three in the morning, Bob's will do okay by you: order up a strong cup of coffee and some breakfast food (served all day!), and voila, drunk-late-night eats!

Unfortunately, the food is not the strong point at Bob's, and even the classic "Big Boy" Double Hamburger is a far, far cry from the best that SoCal has to offer (In N' Out and Fatburger blow this joint way, way, wayyyyy out of the water).

I always vote for breakfast food when I can, at any hour of the night. I was stoked to see the "Breakfast All Day!" sign, and even more stoked to find my favorite dish, corned beef hash and eggs, on the menu (a good eggs benedict is also always welcome). About five minutes later (hey, service was fast once we got our order in), I got some canned hash on a plate with dried out eggs. See that toast slice on the plate below me? I put that there to make the whole thing look prettier. Not even the customary parsley sprig garnish. That's it.

Luckily I was pretty ravenous, and seriously, when it's 2am, you could really give a shit as long as it soaks up the alcohol. But Bob's is way more crowded during the day than it is at night, which makes me wonder -- is the pull of nostalgia really strong enough to overcome such sub-par food? The burger was okay, although light on the garnishes. Thankfully the fries were respectable -- crispy but thick -- but really only a merest step above McDonald's. And that's the problem with Bob's, something that's perhaps more a result of its outdated concept than its considerable charms: to our modern eyes, Bob's appears to be more of a fast-food/diner mish-mash, neither Mickey D's nor Denny's, caught in some gastronomical time-warp where canned hash and double-patty burgers are still a novelty.

There are lots of reasons to check Bob's out that have nothing to do with the food, thankfully.
Bob has brought back such classic drive-in attractions as the car hop, which runs from 5-10pm on weekend nights (for you sorta-late-night types), and they also host a Classic Car Night on Fridays from 5p-10p. It's definitely the kind of place where people pull their Firebirds or souped-up Mustangs into the lot and just stand around and shoot the shit on their way into or out of lunch every weekend.

It's not really the late-night party kind of place, though -- maybe because of the heavy Boomer nostalgia attached to the place, it's much more of a family affair, where you're more likely to see Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, and the kids enjoying a Sunday brunch than a bunch of rocker dudes and dudettes munching off their drunkies at some ungodly hour.

But if you're interested in the history of classic California coffee-shop architecture, Bob's is still one of the best examples of streamlined, modern mid-century restaurant design. The Bob's website has some information on its own history and the significance of the building, while the old-timey Big Boy statue is featured on the site Roadside Peek (the statue in Toluca Lake is one of the few remaining at its original location).

The original Bob's restaurants have been sold, resold, and franchised all over the country (thus their reputation as the Jersey rest stop diner), and the Big Boy statue has even found its way to Japan. Wikipedia even has some super-cool trivia about the Burbank location in particular -- has anybody ever seen David Lynch there? I mean, come on. How sweet would that be?

It's not fancy, it's not even particularly good, but if you're in the neighborhood and looking for a side of nostalgia to go with your hash and eggs, Bob's Big Boy is worth at least a visit. And yes, please do take a picture with the Big Boy statue -- he's now almost one of a kind!

Bob's Big Boy
4211 W Riverside Dr
Burbank 91505
818-843-9334
Google Maps Link
Open 24 Hours

All photos by Carrie Meathrell for LAist.