Six restaurants across Southwest Ohio are closing permanently just seven months after opening.
Big Boy Restaurant Group announced on October 23, 2025, that all Dolly’s Burgers & Shakes locations in Cincinnati and Dayton will shut down.
Four of the restaurants are in the Cincinnati area, and two are near Dayton. The closures will eliminate about 360 jobs, hitting workers especially hard before the holidays.
The move ends what started as an ambitious plan to revive the Big Boy brand in one of its historic strongholds.
Lightning Fast
The closures occurred far more quickly than is typical in the restaurant world. Dolly’s first Ohio restaurant opened in Blue Ash on March 10, 2025, followed by five more in just a few weeks.
Now, by October 23—only 227 days later—every location will be closed. Industry experts typically give restaurants a year or two to become profitable, making this one of the shortest lifespans in recent memory.
The Big Boy Restaurant Group had invested heavily in the rollout, hiring staff, installing new equipment, replenishing inventory, and engaging in extensive marketing. Less than a year later, all of that investment is gone. Analysts say the collapse is unusually abrupt, even in a harsh industry.
Brand Legacy
The Big Boy brand dates back nearly 90 years, to 1936, when founder Bob Wian sold his car to buy a small burger stand in Glendale, California.
He created the now-famous double-decker hamburger in response to a customer’s request for something different. That innovation turned into the Big Boy burger, which helped launch one of America’s earliest restaurant chains.
By the 1950s, Big Boy expanded nationwide through franchising, with local operators like Frisch’s Big Boy dominating regions such as Cincinnati. At its height in 1989, there were over 240 Bob’s Big Boy restaurants.
Although the brand has shrunk since then, it still maintains more than 50 locations in the U.S. and abroad, keeping its nostalgic charm alive.
Territory Tensions
Big Boy’s downfall in Ohio began long before Dolly’s opened. In 2001, Big Boy’s parent company signed a legal agreement granting Frisch’s Restaurants full ownership of the Big Boy brand and trademarks in certain states, including Indiana, Kentucky, and parts of Ohio and Tennessee.
Elsewhere, the Big Boy Restaurant Group retained its rights. For years, this arrangement worked fine. However, when Frisch’s encountered significant financial difficulties in 2024, missing over $4.5 million in rent and losing 20 restaurants to eviction, Big Boy saw an opportunity.
Believing the territory was weakening, the Michigan-based company decided to push back into Ohio—a move that would ignite a significant legal battle.
Restraining Order
The turf war officially began on Valentine’s Day 2025. FBB IP LLC, the company controlling what remained of Frisch’s restaurants, filed a lawsuit accusing Big Boy Restaurant Group of trying to illegally reopen old Frisch’s sites under the Big Boy name—something strictly prohibited by contract.
By March 7, a federal judge sided with Frisch’s, issuing a temporary restraining order that banned Big Boy from using its name or logo anywhere in Southwest Ohio.
Instead of backing off, Big Boy tried a clever workaround. It rebranded its new restaurants as “Dolly’s Burgers & Shakes,” named after Big Boy’s longtime fictional girlfriend in vintage comics.
Regional Impact
The shutdown affects several busy areas, including Blue Ash, Anderson Township, Delhi Township, Symmes Township, Miami Township near the Dayton Mall, and Troy.
Each location employed around 60 workers, many of whom had previously worked for Frisch’s before those closures. Now, many are losing their jobs for the second time within a year. Local officials worry the empty restaurants will drag down business districts, becoming yet another round of failed food ventures in high-rent areas.
Real estate agents say these frequent openings and closings create instability, discouraging future restaurant operators from leasing the same spaces.
Workers Displaced
When Dolly’s first opened in March, the mood was upbeat. Families filled the dining room, and employees took pride in bringing back a bit of the old Big Boy atmosphere.
CEO Tamer Afr had promised to create hundreds of jobs after Frisch’s collapse, calling Dolly’s a sign of community revival. However, seven months later, optimism gave way to disappointment and worry. Many employees now face limited options as the local job market softens.
Ohio’s unemployment rate of 4.9% is already higher than the national average, and temporary holiday jobs often don’t match the pay or benefits of restaurant work. For some staff, it’s the second financial blow in less than a year.
Competitor Response
Frisch’s Big Boy, though deeply weakened, still operates about 31 restaurants across Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. The company’s legal victory reaffirmed its ownership of the Big Boy name in its territory, showing that contracts still carry weight even when a company is struggling.
Across the country, however, the traditional family-dining style restaurant is fading fast. Denny’s CEO Kelli Valade admitted that “family dining has struggled more than any other restaurant segment since the pandemic.”
While fast food continues to grow, full-service, sit-down restaurants like Big Boy are seeing fewer customers and lower profits. Dolly’s brief existence adds another data point to this grim trend.
Trademark Warfare
The Big Boy–Frisch’s legal fight is part of a much larger pattern of global brand disputes. In recent years, fast-food companies have clashed in court over who owns or first used famous trademarks.
McDonald’s lost the European rights to the “Big Mac” name for specific menu items after an Irish chain, Supermac’s, successfully challenged them. In the U.S., Taco Bell pressured Taco John’s to drop its “Taco Tuesday” trademark.
In India, Burger King lost a case attempting to force a local Burger King restaurant that predated its arrival to change its name. These cases demonstrate that courts are becoming less tolerant of brands claiming exclusive control over common names or previously unclaimed territories.
Fifty-Five Lost
Before Frisch’s lawsuit halted everything, CEO Tamer Afr had bold plans: he wanted to reopen 55 closed Frisch’s or Big Boy-style restaurants across Ohio.
“I’m going to keep going,” he told reporters in early 2025, confident his team could fill the gap left by Frisch’s. The restraining order, however, instantly shut down those ambitions. It didn’t just close six restaurants—it killed the larger dream of reviving the Big Boy brand in the Midwest.
Analysts estimate the company may have lost as much as $75 million between construction, permits, and canceled leases. Scores of planned jobs evaporated before they were even filled.
CEO’s Vision
Tamer Afr, age 52, is relatively new to the restaurant industry. He became CEO in early 2020 after investors purchased Big Boy from Michigan.
A trained lawyer and business graduate, Afr had always been a fan of the brand, fondly recalling family dinners at Big Boy restaurants near Detroit when he was a child. Guided by nostalgia, he set out to modernize the chain, making it relevant again while preserving its classic identity.
Dolly’s rollout in Ohio was meant to showcase that revival and reignite the community’s love for the brand. Instead, it became his most expensive failure since taking charge.
Ownership Shift
Frisch’s, meanwhile, had undergone its own transformation. In late 2024, amid a financial meltdown, two senior managers—Don Short and Cheryl White—bought the remaining restaurants from parent company NRD Capital.
At that point, over 50 locations had already been closed due to unpaid rent. The new owners formed FBB IP LLC to manage the brand and vowed to keep as many restaurants open as possible.
One of their first moves was to file the lawsuit that stopped Big Boy’s reentry into Ohio. The strategy paid off in court, but Frisch’s itself remains unstable, having lost about 60% of its stores in just one year.
Arbitration Ahead
After months of litigation in court, both companies agreed in late March 2025 to submit the dispute to arbitration, a private legal process outside traditional courts.
Big Boy argues that the new Frisch’s ownership isn’t legitimate and therefore doesn’t have the right to block expansion. Frisch’s rejects that claim, insisting it has the full legal rights under its asset purchase agreement. Arbitration could take years, forcing Dolly’s restaurants to remain closed during that time.
Big Boy claims it even tried to buy Frisch’s before the eviction crisis, and when negotiations failed, it sought to terminate Frisch’s territorial rights—a move now stuck in legal limbo.
Uncertain Recovery
Experts in franchise law say Big Boy faces an uphill battle. The original 2001 territory agreement used words like “absolute” and “irrevocable,” meaning nearly impossible to overturn.
Even if Big Boy somehow wins later, reopening would require starting from scratch: signing new leases, rehiring hundreds of employees, and rebuilding consumer trust. The market itself also looks bleak.
Nationally, family dining chains are closing at record rates, with Denny’s eliminating 150 locations and larger brands like TGI Fridays, Hooters, and Red Lobster struggling through bankruptcy proceedings.
Dolly’s sudden rise and fall neatly capture how hard the mid-range dining category has become to sustain.
Future Uncertain
In its final statement, Big Boy Restaurant Group hinted it hasn’t given up completely. “We remain hopeful that once the matter is resolved, we will be able to return and reopen under the Big Boy name,” the company said.
But by then, the Southwest Ohio market may have changed entirely. The six Dolly’s buildings could be taken over by other restaurant chains or sit vacant for months, adding to a growing wave of empty dining spaces nationwide.
For Big Boy’s CEO, it’s a personal and financial blow. For the restaurant industry, it’s a cautionary tale about how territorial battles, legal missteps, and overambitious growth can destroy even the most beloved brands within a matter of months.