When the Big Boy statues came down across Greater Cincinnati, the buildings they left behind did not stay empty for long. Dozens of Frisch’s closed in late 2024 after the chain’s landlord sought to evict it from more than 50 locations, shrinking a footprint that once topped 80 restaurants in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana to 31 today. Around Cincinnati, those dining rooms and drive-thru lanes are now being claimed by a chophouse, a brunch chain, a coffee drive-thru, a chili parlor, an animal clinic and even a marijuana dispensary.
The highest-profile conversion is in Fort Wright, Kentucky, just across the river, where Billy Grise and Mitch Arens, co-owners of Carmelo’s Italian restaurant in Covington, are opening an American chophouse at 20 Kyles Lane. The building housed a Frisch’s until it relocated to Orphanage Road in August. The new restaurant will seat 160, include an outdoor patio and operate under the owners’ Something Underground Hospitality group. Its name and design are still in development and will honor the stretch of Dixie Highway through Fort Wright once known as the Gourmet Strip.
In Ohio, the breakfast crowd has already moved in. First Watch, the Florida-based brunch chain, took over the former Frisch’s at 3050 Anchor Drive in Fairfield Township last year, turning it into a 5,400-square-foot restaurant with a bar and more than 160 seats. In Delhi Township, Arkansas-based 7 Brew Coffee plans a drive-thru at 5202 Delhi Pike, where a Frisch’s once stood. Construction was expected to begin around Aug. 4 and take roughly 90 days, per its zoning application, and the shop would be 7 Brew’s seventh in Greater Cincinnati.
Another Cincinnati institution found new life in a former Frisch’s. Covington’s Skyline Chili, which had stood on Third Street for roughly 55 years, moved into the old Big Boy at Philadelphia and West Fifth streets, two blocks from its original home. The move followed a threat of closure in 2023, and the new Skyline opened in June 2026.
Not every conversion involves food. In Norwood, Eric Lies, president and CEO of Noah’s Ark, bought the former Frisch’s at 4765 Montgomery Road to open the animal clinic’s sixth location by fall 2027. Lies has not decided whether to remodel or demolish it, but promised, “It’s not going to look like a Frisch’s when we’re done.”
The boldest reuse may be in Union Township, where Certified Cultivators plans a marijuana dispensary in the former Frisch’s at 559 State Route 125. The company has already turned a former Frisch’s in Columbus into a dispensary and plans the same in Dayton. President Zach Weprin said the sites offer “great access,” including existing drive-thru lanes. The store is expected to open in spring 2027.
Together, the conversions show why the old sites are in demand: busy corners, ample parking, drive-thru infrastructure and buildings drivers already know how to find. With openings staggered from this year to 2027 in Norwood and Union Township, the afterlife of the Big Boy will keep unfolding across the Cincinnati area.
Photo: Randy Stern, CC BY