Bob's Big Boy Burbank

Bob's Big Boy Burbank is an organised meet venue of the oldest kind: a working 1949 diner on Riverside Drive whose car park turns into a classic car show every Friday evening, 4pm to 10pm, all year. The building is the reason it works. It is the oldest surviving Bob's Big Boy in America, designed by Wayne McAllister in the streamline style of the late 1940s, a listed California Point of Historical Interest, and restored by the MacDonald family who bought it back; the neon and the Big Boy statue are the backdrop every hot rod parks against.

On a Friday, expect a cruise in rather than a judged show: cars roll in and out through the evening, hot rods, muscle, customs and classics with the odd modern exotic, and the crowd walks the rows with a milkshake. It is free to bring a car and free to watch, the restaurant runs it itself, and it has been going long enough that Jay Leno and Brian Wilson count among the regular sightings the diner mentions. On any other night it is a diner with carhop service on Saturday and Sunday evenings, open until midnight, 3am on Friday and Saturday.

Because it is a standing weekly fixture there is nothing to wait for: turn up on a Friday. The restaurant's Instagram, instagram.com/bobsbigboyburbank, and Facebook page, facebook.com/bobsburbank, are where changes, contests and specials are posted, so check them the week you go. Spectator parking is not published and the lot is the show, so expect to park in the streets around Riverside Drive and Toluca Lake and walk in.

A Friday night cruise in at a landmark diner; the building and the burgers are the constants, the cars change every week.

• Every Friday 4pm to 10pm, year round: hot rods, muscle, customs and classics coming and going through the evening, a walk the rows crowd, no judging.
• Free to show a car and free to watch; the restaurant runs it, no registration published.
• Getting there: a drive first neighbourhood on Riverside Drive at the Toluca Lake end of Burbank; the show takes the car park, so spectators park in the surrounding streets. Arrive early in the evening for the fuller lot.
• Nearby: the diner itself for burgers, fries and shakes through the show, open to 3am on Fridays; carhop service on Saturday and Sunday nights, not Fridays.
• Police and shutdowns: a sanctioned show on the restaurant's own lot with no shutdown pattern reported.
• Where to check: instagram.com/bobsbigboyburbank and facebook.com/bobsburbank for cancellations, contests and specials; no announcement lead time, the Friday is standing.
• On a quiet night it is a landmark diner worth a meal on its own.

• The show runs 4pm to 10pm every Friday; the diner is open 6am to 3am Friday and Saturday, 6am to midnight other days. Phone 818 843 9334.
• Display rules, year cutoffs and spectator parking are not published; check the Instagram the week of your visit.
• The lot is the display area on Friday nights; plan on street parking and a walk.
• Photograph freely from the rows, but it is a restaurant car park: ask owners before leaning in and keep the driveways clear.

Last updated: 11 September 2026