BBF (Burger Boy Foodarama) aka “Bigger, Better, Faster”
“Everybody’s goin’ to a BBF, and taking their appetite.Everybody’s goin’ to a BBF at the whirling satellite”
Milton Oscar Lustnauer, Sr (1917-2005) along with Roy Tuggle (1918-1998), opened the first BBF in 1961 at Central Avenue and Mound Street. BBF stood for Burger Boy Food-O-Rama. But inside the company, it stood for “Bigger, Better, Faster,” At that time McDonald’s was the main competitive store, and they were going gangbusters, but BBF thought if they could do everything bigger, better, faster, they could compete with them. A total of 48 BBF restaurants opened in Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky. In 1970, they were sold to Borden Inc.
Before BBF , Lustnauer and his wife, Jean, opened the Green Gables restaurant in 1948 on the West Side. Lustnauer later owned several Wendy’s restaurants, as well as Long John Silvers.
Jim Near worked for Lustnauer at BBF before going on to become chief executive and chairman of Wendy’s. While with BBF , Lustnauer helped Gov. Jim Rhodes start the “Sale of Champions” at the Ohio State Fair, often purchasing the prize steer for BBF . Active in the community, he once bought a polar bear for the Columbus Zoo.
