Frisch’s Big Boy, a popular food chain from Ohio, has closed many locations due to unforeseen circumstances. Frisch’s Big Boy first opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, by Samuel Frisch. It was originally under the name Frisch’s Cafe but changed about 10 years later to Frisch’s Stag Lunch when a new building was purchased. According to Frisch’s.com, “The ninth of ten children, Dave Frisch followed in the footsteps of his father Samuel Frisch, who in 1905 opened the Frisch Café in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1915, Samuel opened Frisch’s Stag Lunch in Norwood, a suburb of Cincinnati. Dave withdrew from school as a teenager to work full-time in his father’s restaurant. He eventually returned to high school, but before he graduated, his father passed away, leaving Dave and his brothers to run the restaurant” (Frisch’s, 2024).

In recent years, Frisch’s has been undergoing severe legal trouble, failing to pay $4.5 million in rent. This has caused the company to get evicted from their many locations, forcing them to close the doors of 20 locations in October of this year. With 60 locations remaining, many customers were left disappointed to see a childhood food location close without a solid way of trying the food again. According to an article written by Joanna Fantozzi with nrn.com, “The recent court documents were filed by real estate investment trust, NNN Reit, which owns 66 of Frisch’s locations and also acts as the company’s landlord for most of its properties in a sale-leaseback arrangement. Court documents indicate that these locations have not been paying rent since February.” (Fantozzi, October 29th).

Since the initial loss of 20 locations, the chain has closed 5 more locations, leaving 55 of the initial 80 left.