It’s impossible to count the number of hamburgers that have sizzled on the grill of Bob’s Hamburg.
It would be in the millions.
The Kenmore icon turns 80 this month. It is Akron’s oldest hamburger joint, beating out Swensons by three years.
Although it has had five owners during that time, with the exception of a coat of paint every now and then, Bob’s has remained virtually unchanged since it opened in a converted streetcar at 1351 East Ave.
Inside, there are just six booths and eight stools, which are covered in well-worn red leather. The place is so small, customers have to go outside to get to the rest rooms. Every seat in the house gives the diner a view of the grill, which is busy from the time Bob’s opens at 7 a.m. with bacon and eggs, until the last burgers come off the line at 3:30 p.m.
It’s a small cooking surface, measuring just 4 feet by 2 feet, but it can hold about two dozen burgers at a time, and usually is filled to capacity. Customers come and go in a steady stream, picking up phone orders, or jockeying for a place to sit.
There are salads on the menu, but it’s hard to believe they are ever ordered. It’s giant cheeseburgers, and paper boats piled high with skinny, hand-cut french fries and hand-battered onion rings that fill the tables. (See them on video at http://www.Ohio.com.)
The Bob in Bob’s Hamburg was Bob Holbrook, who started the restaurant in 1931. He owned it for just a few years before selling it in 1934 to Walter Ridge, the longest and perhaps best-known owner.
After Ridge died in 1981 (in a booth in the restaurant) one of his employees, Barb Schlagenhauser, purchased it in 1984. She sold it in 2003 to Tom and Jan Dobson, but stayed on for several years as the cook.
Tom Dobson died in October, leaving his wife to care for the business. When she decided to sell it, she didn’t have to look far.
Aimee Buckeye has been working at Bob’s for the past three years, since shortly after she was laid off from her sales and marketing job in Cuyahoga Falls. She previously had worked 16 years for TGI Friday’s, both in California and several Akron-area locations. So after her layoff, she decided to look for restaurant work again and ended up at Bob’s.
Then in January, Buckeye, 41, was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer. She endured 16 weeks of chemotherapy, which so far has been successful. Her blond hair is just starting to return, peeking out from underneath her visor, which is embroidered with her name.
When Jan Dobson began looking for a buyer, Buckeye decided that if she could beat cancer, she could run the restaurant.
She became its fifth owner on July 1.
Buckeye said all the years of working in a restaurant fostered a desire to have her own place one day, and Bob’s has proved to be excellent motivation, especially during her illness. Throughout her weeks of cancer treatment, Buckeye never missed a day’s work, even if she had to drag herself in after chemo.
“I needed something to make me get out of bed every day,” she said. “It’s a challenge every day.”
With a husband, four kids, and now a business to run, Buckeye is too busy to be sick.
She’s been planning Bob’s 80th anniversary celebration for this weekend. Buckeye has no plans to change a thing inside, except possibly to have her husband, Dan, rehang a shelf that once hung above the windows.
Customers already have warned Buckeye that they like the place just the way it is, and that’s fine with her.
Even with the changes in owners, at Bob’s, little ever changes. It’s still closed on Sunday, and in this era of debit or credit, it’s still cash only.
Schlagenhauser and Jan Dobson continue to come back on the weekends to help cook.
Cheryl Konro has been waiting on customers at Bob’s for 22 years. Schlagenhauser hired her to wash dishes from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. — four hours in the middle of the day when her kids were in school. Eventually, she became full time.
In the kitchen, Linda Truan has worked for 16 years, arriving early to cut potatoes for Bob’s signature skinny fries and dipping the onion rings by hand.
The customers are as loyal as the help. Which probably explains why the McDonald’s that had been across the street is now a day-care center.
Jim Haskins, who lives in Kenmore, has been coming to Bob’s since he was 3 years old. The 84-year-old said he enjoys the hamburgers, but prefers to come for breakfast.
Bob Streharsky has been coming to Bob’s since 1959, when he was a student at South High School and lived around the corner from the diner. Walter Ridge operated a snow plow business and had the contract to clear the parking lot at the school. He hired Streharsky to shovel the steps and sidewalks while he plowed, paying him $1.25 an hour, plus breakfast. The pair would get up early to clear snow, and then head back to Bob’s about 6:30 a.m., where Ridge would make them eggs and coffee before he opened.
With money in his pocket and breakfast in his belly, Streharsky would head off to school.
Now, he returns to Bob’s several times a week, where he takes photos of the customers, prints them, and then comes back to leave them for customers to find on their next visit.
He’ll most likely be there snapping away this weekend for the anniversary celebration, which takes place Friday from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with daily specials, Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., which is Family Day, and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., where there will be a cruise-in for vintage cars.
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
