JB's Restaurants

JB's Family Restaurants is chain of restaurants located in Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. The JB's chain also contains a single remaining Galaxy Diner on Route 66 in Flagstaff, Arizona. The company is currently based in Tempe, Arizona.

JB’s Family Restaurants was founded in 1961 by Jack M. Broberg as JB's Big Boy, a Big Boy restaurants affiliate, in Provo, Utah. The first JB's Big Boy opened there on November 21, 1961. Broberg chose the location because many students at Brigham Young University in Provo came from Southern California where Big Boy was popular, as well as the need for a family restaurant in the Provo area. In 1963, the holding company was renamed JB's Big Boy Family Restaurants, Inc. The company became public in July 1971 and its stock quickly sold out at its first offering.

In the 1970s JB's expanded by acquiring neighboring Big Boy franchisees: Vip's, Leo's, Kebo's and Bud's. In 1970 JB's became the Big Boy franchisor in New Jersey and built five restaurants in the state, but in 1975 it sold the territory and stores to the Marriott Corp. who rebanded them as Bob's Big Boys. The sale funded expansion in the western US.

By the 1980s JB's sought additional franchise territory in the western US. After the Marriott Corp. – then owner of the Big Boy system – refused granting additional territory, in 1984, JB's sued to leave Big Boy. The parties settled, JB's paying $7 million in exchange for additional territory, including central and northern California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and Arizona where it operated as Bob's Big Boy; JB's also purchased 29 existing Bob's Big Boy restaurants from Marriott. Citing the sale of Big Boy to Elias Brothers, in 1988 JB's allowed its Big Boy franchise to expire, removing 110 units from the Big Boy system.