ToquiNotes: Recalling Local Restaurant with Burgers to Die for and More that Met a Far Too Quick Demise
By Jeff Toquinto on April 23, 2022 from ToquiNotes via Connect-Bridgeport.com
I cannot remember when, but sometime in the last few decades one of my favorite restaurants in the area shut its doors for good. The odd thing, trying to find an exact closing date for this chain that actually started in Wheeling and grew to number 75 in total was unattainable after multiple internet searches.
Someone out there may know better than I when it shut its doors, but I can pin down where it was located and what my favorite meal was. 
And, yes, the internet did provide me the date when it opened right here in Harrison County literally a few hundred yards from the city limits of Bridgeport.
And, yes, the internet did provide me the date when it opened right here in Harrison County literally a few hundred yards from the city limits of Bridgeport.
The restaurant in question was Elby’s Big Boy. Do you remember?
If you do not, it is highly likely you remember the statue that stood out front, that was emblazoned on their signs, and used as the marketing tool. It was the statue of the black-haired youngster in red, checkered coveralls with a platter holding a hamburger.
The memory of the restaurant came flooding back recently when I saw one of the statues being offered on Facebook Marketplace and then, hours later, gone. Not sure if to the highest bidder, or the likelihood it was a long-stolen trinket.
I digress.
The picture did not get me to run to my computer to make an offer, but it did jog my memory and get me on a search of the chain – with its first store opening in 1956 – that ended up having dozens of locations in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
It was one of the earliest restaurants at the Eastpointe Shopping Plaza. According to a detailed list of all the stores opened by the Wheeling-based restaurant, it opened between May and June in 1985. It was the 78th out of 90 total restaurants owned by the Boury Brothers (all of whom have passed).
Someone I know will correct me if I am wrong on this, but it was situated where Panera Bread is located today. If not, it was in that general area with visibility of the back of the building from Route 50 and the front from Emily Drive.
I got the same thing the first few years it was open. And it was the signature dish – the Elby’s Big Boy Hamburger.
Two patties of the finest freshly-ground beef on a specially baked sesame seed toasted bun with crisp lettuce, a slice of fine American cheese and their own special sauce. Good memory, huh? Actually, I just copied that from a menu I found online, but the hamburger was among the best available at a time when if most people wanted a hamburger in the area, it was McDonald’s or Burger Chef.
For whatever reason, I remember going to eat there with a group of friends and most of them got another item that I recalled after looking at a menu that has to be from one of their earliest stores decades earlier. It was the “Slim Jim.”
With apologies to Macho Man Randy Savage, this version of the Slim Jim was better based on my friends throwing it down their throats with no thought of chewing. It was described as “a generous portion of baked ham, fresh mellow Swiss cheese, lettuce and tomato on hot grilled Grecian bread.”
They had a little bit of everything as well. Breakfast foods, dinners, salads – like the Shoney’s that for reasons I never understood did not 
make it in Bridgeport and later Clarksburg.
make it in Bridgeport and later Clarksburg.
Eventually, Elby’s would not make it either. Based on what I can tell from our friends on the internet, the chain was suddenly sold in 1988 by the Boury brothers. The company that purchased it was the Elias Brothers Company.
Somewhere between the sale and the purchase, Elby’s actually dropped the Big Boy concept before the Elias Brothers brought it back. And in another note found during research, Shoney’s also utilized the Big Boy moniker at some locations into the 1980s.
Regardless, when it came to running Elby’s long term one set of brothers were not as good as the others. I have no proof of that other than under the new ownership things had to change for the worse or Elby’s would not have met its demise a few years after the acquisition. In fairness, there were struggles that led to the sale and may have set the stage for the eventual closure. Although, again, the exact date of closure remains unclear, it appears the Elias Brothers Big Boy Brand declared bankruptcy in 2000
.
.
Unverified history aside, there is one thing verifiable. Elby’s is no more even though the Big Boy brand still exists.
Gone was the menu that was honed by the original brothers into a work of art. Gone, too, were the more than 6,000 workers that labored in the restaurants at the height of operations.
What remains is the memories. That huge burger you could get right off of U.S. Route 50 and a quick turn onto Emily Drive is still fresh in my mind.
If you are 40-plus, you may remember the restaurant. If you are under that age in the millennial crowd, chances are you do not.
It is a shame it is gone. It was a West Virginia restaurant that, boy, was big. It was Elby’s and it was big, boy. Or as I remember it, just as Elby’s Big Boy.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows the famous "Big Boy" burger, while the equally famous statue that was once situated outside the Clarksburg Elby's is shown in the second photo. In the third photo is a standard Elby's Restaurant. Although not the Eastpointe version, it is very similar in appearance to most restaurants at that time. Fourth photo is of another well-known sandwich - the Slim Jim. Below is a very early version of the Shoney's Menu.
