Bob's () is a Brazilian

fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...

chain, founded in 1952 by the

American Brazilian An American Brazilian ( pt, italic=yes, américo-brasileiro, norte-americano-brasileiro, estadunidense-brasileiro) is a Brazilian person who is fully, partially or predominantly of European-American descent or a U.S.-born immigrant in Brazil. ...

tennis champion Bob Falkenburg,

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

tournament winner in 1948. The first store was opened in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. It is the first Brazilian fast food chain. In 1972, Falkenburg sold the franchise to the

Brazilian Fast Food Corporation Brazil Fast Food Corporation (BFFC) is a food service holding company in Brazil that includes BFFC do Brasil Participacões, Ltda. It also operated in Angola and Chile. The restaurants and kiosks include company owned operations and franchisees such ...

(BFFC).

History

Bob, as Falkenburg was known, was the one who introduced the concept of ''fast-food'' in the country, opening the first restaurant of this type in the country in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. In

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, however, Falkenburg sold the store, which is now controlled by Brazilians, in Guarujá. Today the chain has a varied menu. Bob's is known for serving snacks with flavors closer to Brazilian cuisine, such as

picanha ''Picanha'' is a cut of beef first made popular in Brazil, and later adopted in Portugal. In the United States, the cut is little known and often named top sirloin cap, rump cover, rump cap, or culotte (French). North American butchers generally ...

hamburgers. One of the main snacks is the sandwich Big Bob, made with two beef patties, onion, iceberg lettuce, sauce and bread with

sesame Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus ''Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...

Big Bob

Among the main sandwiches sold by the company, Big Bob is the most popular and it is made of two hamburgers,

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

and leaf chicory. Bobs 2000s Logo

The chain also offers innovative sandwiches, as toasted cheese with banana sandwich. Another popular item sold by the franchise is the

Ovomaltine Ovaltine (also known by its original name Ovomaltine) is a brand of milk flavoring product made with malt extract (except in the blue packaging in the United States), sugar (except in Switzerland), and whey. Some flavors also have cocoa. Ovaltin ...

milkshake A milkshake (sometimes simply called a shake) is a sweet beverage made by blending milk, ice cream, and flavorings or sweeteners such as butterscotch, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, fruit syrup, or whole fruit into a thick, sweet, cold mixture ...

Business model

In 1984, Bob's started a

franchising Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busine ...

system, opening new stores in Vitória, Espírito Santo. Since then, Bob's has been expanding within Brazil and internationally. Today, there are about 811 stores in Brazil, of which about 320 are franchises. At one time, international stores were opened in Portugal (

Carcavelos Carcavelos () was, until 2013, a Freguesia (Portugal), civil parish in the Portugal, Portuguese Concelho, municipality of Cascais, about west of Lisbon. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Carcavelos e Parede. The parish was known for t ...

, Algés and Bragança) as well as in Chile and Angola, however since 2021 the company's website shows that they have closed.

Other brands

Bob's Shakes, formerly known as “Bob’s Sorvetes” (Bob's Ice Cream), sells frozen desserts such as ice cream, milkshakes, and pies. It was rebranded to the current name in 2009 due to increased popularity of its milkshakes (principally the

's) compared to ice cream. Bexpress by Bob's offers half-finished and ready sandwiches to be heated in the oven, which can be eaten in or carried out.

References

External links