At Bob’s Big Boy on Thursday night, coffee and chocolate milkshakes were served in honor of David Lynch.
Fans flocked to the Los Angeles landmark to pay tribute to the late filmmaker, who died aged 78 and who once revealed he ordered the quintessential menu items “for seven years, every day at 2:30 p.m.” after lunch and scribbled notes on the plate. American napkins.
There are other reasons why the Burbank burger joint — the oldest still standing of the 1950s-era chain and known for its iconic Southern California cafe architecture — is part of Lynch’s story: he and fellow director John Waters took a famous photo outside, which is where Dennis Hopper’s idea Blue velvet The character was born and it was in the red vinyl booths that the director invited Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan for a “chemistry lunch,” according to an interview with W.
The five-foot-tall fiberglass Big Boy statue became an impromptu Lynch altar: red roses, (unlit) candles, unsmoked cigarettes, white coffee cups, Coke bottles— Cola and other memorabilia were left at his feet by grieving fans. The restaurant, with a capacity of 166 people, was already busier than usual for a Thursday evening thanks to a local school fundraiser, and the waiting room was noticeably full of movie and TV superfans wearing T-shirts and hats inspired by Twin Peaks, Eraser head and other Lynch hits. Among those paying tribute were employees of neighboring media giants such as Walt Disney Studios, Warner Bros. Studios and NBCUniversal.
As more than 10,000 Angelenos rebuild their lives after losing their homes or businesses in the Altadena and Palisades wildfires, fans said. The Hollywood Reporter that his defeat was another blow to Los Angeles in an already heartbreaking start to 2025.
Melissa Molina was among those who stopped by friends after work at NBCUniversal. “Especially right now, in the midst of recovery efforts after the wildfires, he was someone who was an integral part of the Los Angeles arts community for so long, so this feels like an added punch to what It’s been a tumultuous two weeks already,” she said.
Portraits of David Lynch, Kyle MacLachlan and Laura Dern at Bob’s Big Boy restaurant in Toluca Lake, California.
Danielle Directo-Meston/THR
Sales manager Ramesh Iyer and his friend Adam Judd had an early dinner at Bob’s after hearing about Mulholland Drive death of the director.
“We are both filmmakers so inspired by him that we thought: What would be the most Lynchian thing to do? We would go to Bob’s Big Boy and have a malt and a cup of coffee like him,” Iyer said. The Hollywood Reporter. As a staff member called out the names of waiting guests over the loudspeaker, Iyer added that he and other friends have already complained that “2025 is already turning out to be a disappointing year.”
“We’ve already lost a lot of Los Angeles with the fires, and then you add to that a very central figure in Los Angeles,” Judd added.
Inside the restaurant, Ben Greco, Natalie Trainor and Dominick Lioto sat in the back of the restaurant, each sipping chocolate milkshakes with their dinner.
“We all come here from time to time, and (after the announcement) we said, ‘We have to come here,’” Greco said. Sporting an orange Twin Peaks-inspired by the trucker hat, Trainor, a set decorator, added that eating at Lynch’s monument seemed like a good way to honor his influence and artistry. North Hollywood residents didn’t have to go far to grab a table at Bob’s, “but even if it was an hour from here, we still would have come,” Lioto said.
Anonymous art project Diva Corp held a vigil Thursday evening that attracted hundreds of people throughout the evening. Some participants nodded Twin Peaks with zigzag patterned clothing and runway-inspired wardrobes; others brought apple pie.
Via email, Diva Corp members said THR that what stood out from the gathering was “the warmth, the celebration, all the beautiful things people brought to remember him – drawings, pies, family photos, Coca-Cola, flowers, sunglasses sun, cigarettes. There’s also some personal stuff in there: someone left a long letter from an ex telling how Blue velvet reignited their relationship, particularly the character of Frank Booth (played by Hopper).
They continued: “Everyone knows that someone like him can never die. He will live forever, so it was more of a way to celebrate what he had done so far. I think we’re all excited to see what he does next. It was also nice to be together in the aftermath of the fires. To change our minds. »
Some remembered Lynch’s daily pandemic weather reports broadcast on local music radio station KCRW.
“Weather reports have been crucial to getting through each day of the pandemic,” Molina added.
“Despite all the darkness and the violence and the really brutal stuff that’s also there, this excitement and this positivity, I like to think that coming to Bob’s house, we’ve had enough of the violence, of that part of the David Lynch that we all see in the moment – but also having that positivity and that bright light that he was, it’s a cool place to feel that,” added local sound editor and designer Nick Wheeler, who was waiting. outside with Molina and other friends for a table.
Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank was opened in 1949 by Scott MacDonald (no relation to the McDonald’s founders) and Ward Albert and is part of the restaurant chain founded in 1936 by Bob Wian. The popular filming location is known for its background role in the Michael Mann film Heatand its vinyl booths have hosted everyone from the Beatles and Bob Hope to Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato. The restaurant is located on the outskirts of the star enclave of Toluca Lake and was designated a landmark in 1992 by the State of California.
In an archive video of Bob’s Big Boy posted to YouTube, Lynch explained: “I went there because I like to have a chocolate milkshake and there was a silver cup; It wasn’t really ice cream. It was a thing they called a Taylor machine and it would get cold and they would pull the lever and it would come in as a sort of tube of ice and fill this cup. …If you came during lunch, they made so much of it, it would never get cold enough to be ice cream, it would be like soup. So I would go later and it would be cold enough, it would be just right. And if I went later, I would be so hungry, you know what I mean? I had these things for seven years with a cup of coffee and I wrote on the napkins. It was like having an office. You need paper, there is a piece of paper and you write on it when you have ideas. »
From the violent character of Hopper, a drug dealer in Blue velvetLynch noted, “One day at Bob’s, I saw a man come in, and he came up to the counter, and that’s all I remember about the man. But seeing it became a feeling, and that’s where Frank Booth came from.
