McDonald's Didn't Create Fast Food's First Double-Decker Burger

As storied as McDonald's Big Mac is, it's not actually the first burger to take on that double-decker, two-patty, bread-in-the-middle burger format. That distinction falls upon a much different burger chain, one that's not as widely spoken of. It has a blue-eyed, brown-haired boy as its mascot: Bob's Big Boy. It was founded by a man named Bob Wian in 1936, and was originally called "Bob's Pantry." 

The restaurant's website explains that its original creation, simply dubbed the "Big Boy", involved Wian entertaining a request from a regular customer, who "asked for something 'different.'" So Wian split a bun into three parts, and tossed in two burger patties, creating the format they eventually called the "Double-Deck Hamburger", which the restaurant still serves today.

If the Big Mac sounds a lot like that sandwich, that's because it's a direct translation of the Big Boy version. In the late 1960s, Jim Delligatti, a McDonald's franchise owner in the Pittsburgh area who had once worked as a Big Boy manager, decided to try a similar style of burger to boost his lagging sales. He tested that same burger format at a few of his McDonald's locations, and the Big Mac became a part of McDonald's permanent menu starting in 1968. Let's just say the Big Mac ended up performing pretty darn well, even spawning off a nouveau chicken version.

The legacy of Big Boy is a little bit complicated, and that's because there's multiple versions of the chain. The original version, called Bob's Big Boy, now has four remaining locations in California. When Wian decided to turn the chain into a franchise, he allowed franchisees to take some liberties with their names; provided they still use the same branding. That's why offshoot brands like Frisch's Big Boy (located in Cincinnati) exist. The largest version of the chain is simply called Big Boy and is mainly centered in Michigan — which is decidedly a much different backdrop from the palm trees of Los Angeles.

And the special sauce served at the original Bob's Big Boy is much different than the Thousand Island-esque stuff you see at the Michigan-centered Big Boy offshoot of the chain. It's a red relish that some liken to a mildly sweet ketchup, which is notable considering secret burger sauces have taken on a much different mayo-based direction in modern times. Even the Big Mac has a mayo-based secret sauce. But the difference in sauce isn't going to change the Big Mac's original DNA, which is all thanks to the Bob's Big Boy burger.