If you’ve driven past a closed Frisch’s Big Boy recently—or noticed several shut down in a short period—you’re not imagining it. Dozens of locations across Greater Cincinnati and Ohio have permanently closed since late 2024, and the pace has alarmed longtime customers and employees alike.
But is Frisch’s actually going out of business? The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no. This article breaks down what’s really happening, why so many locations closed at once, who is responsible, and what remains open right now.
Frisch’s Has Not Shut Down Completely—But the Damage Is Real
Let’s be direct: Frisch’s Big Boy still exists as a brand. Locations are still open and serving customers. But the chain has taken a serious hit.
More than 20 locations have permanently closed since October 2024. On top of that, at least 20 of the roughly 80 remaining restaurants are currently facing active eviction proceedings. That’s more than one quarter of the surviving locations under legal pressure from landlords over unpaid rent.
This is a severe downsizing—not a full corporate shutdown. No formal bankruptcy filing has been confirmed in reporting as of this writing. But calling it a minor rough patch would also be wrong. The chain’s footprint, particularly in the Cincinnati area, has shrunk significantly and is still shrinking.
The 2015 Private Equity Deal That Started This
To understand why Frisch’s is in this position, you need to go back a decade. In 2015, Atlanta-based private equity firm NRD Capital acquired Frisch’s Restaurants Inc. for approximately $175 million, taking the company private.
That sale alone didn’t create the crisis. What followed four months later did.
A Florida-based company—now known as NNN REIT LP—purchased 74 of Frisch’s 121 store properties for roughly $47 million. This is called a sale-leaseback arrangement. Frisch’s sold the buildings it owned, collected the cash, and then signed long-term leases to stay in those same buildings as a tenant.
Think of it like selling your house and then renting it back from the new owner. You get a lump sum upfront, but now you have fixed monthly payments and no property to fall back on. If your income drops, you’re still on the hook for rent.
That’s exactly what happened to Frisch’s. When sales softened over the years—due to a combination of industry pressures, rising costs, and post-pandemic changes in dining habits—those fixed rent obligations became increasingly difficult to meet. The company had already sold the one asset that could have provided flexibility.
Why So Many Locations Closed at the Same Time
The wave of closures didn’t happen randomly. NNN REIT LP, the landlord holding leases on those 74 properties, began filing eviction notices against Frisch’s for unpaid rent. According to reporting from Nation’s Restaurant News, total unpaid rent claims have exceeded $4.5 million.
When a restaurant can’t pay rent and the landlord files for eviction, the result is abrupt. Customers show up and find locked doors. Staff find out their location is done. There’s rarely much warning.
The closures have been concentrated in Greater Cincinnati but spread across multiple neighborhoods and suburbs. Locations in Cheviot, North College Hill, Harrison, West Price Hill, and Franklin County have all shut down. One of the most visible losses was the Mainliner on Wooster Pike—a location that had been open for roughly 80 years—which closed on December 23, 2024.
Beyond the rent dispute, FC Cincinnati separately filed a legal claim against Frisch’s for approximately $150,000 in unpaid sponsorship fees. That’s a smaller number, but it signals that the financial stress isn’t limited to real estate.
When multiple creditors are coming after the same company at the same time, it typically means the underlying cash flow problem is serious and widespread—not isolated to one bad lease deal.
Which Frisch’s Locations Are Still Open
Here’s the practical question most people searching this topic actually want answered: is my local Frisch’s still open?
WCPO published a map tracking which Frisch’s Big Boy locations remain open, and dozens are still operating. However, the situation is still changing, and what was open last week may not be open today.
A few things worth knowing:
- Not all Frisch’s properties are owned by NNN REIT. Locations outside that landlord’s portfolio face less direct eviction pressure.
- According to community tracking, approximately 13 locations outside the 13-county Cincinnati area remain open and are not caught up in the NNN REIT lease disputes.
- Some stores within the core Cincinnati footprint are also still operating.
The safest approach is to call your local Frisch’s directly or check the Frisch’s website before making a trip. Given how quickly individual locations have been closing, real-time confirmation is worth the extra 30 seconds.
What Comes Next: Big Boy Restaurant Group’s Reopening Plan
Here’s where things get a bit more complicated—but also more interesting.
In early 2025, Big Boy Restaurant Group (the national Big Boy brand, separate from Frisch’s) announced plans to reopen 55 former Frisch’s locations by June 1, 2025, under the Big Boy name. The CEO outlined what he called ambitious goals for the Cincinnati area and beyond.
It’s important to understand the distinction here. Frisch’s Big Boy has operated as a regional franchise using the Big Boy brand for decades. Big Boy Restaurant Group is the national brand owner—a separate corporate entity. The plan would effectively put the national brand in control of locations that Frisch’s previously operated as a franchisee.
From a customer’s perspective, you might walk into a building that used to be a Frisch’s Big Boy and see a similar mascot, a familiar menu, and a similar atmosphere—but the company running it has changed. That’s a significant operational shift even if the branding looks familiar.
Whether all 55 reopenings actually happen on that timeline is not yet fully confirmed. The legal disputes between Frisch’s and NNN REIT are still active, and some of those properties may still be tied up in eviction proceedings. It’s an ambitious plan, and the situation on the ground is still moving.
Some former Frisch’s locations are also being taken over by other concepts entirely. Dolly’s Burgers & Shakes, for example, has been mentioned as one brand moving into former Frisch’s buildings. If you see a new restaurant in what used to be a Frisch’s, that’s likely what happened.
What This Means for Employees and the Community
The business mechanics matter, but so do the human consequences. Every location that closes represents jobs lost—cooks, servers, managers, and hourly workers who often had no warning that their restaurant was about to be evicted.
For a region like Greater Cincinnati, where Frisch’s has been a local institution since 1939, the closures also carry cultural weight. The Mainliner’s closing after 80 years isn’t just a real estate transaction—it’s the end of something people grew up with. That emotional response is legitimate and explains why so many people are convinced the brand is completely gone even when locations remain open.
For business owners and managers watching from the outside, the Frisch’s situation is a clear case study in how a sale-leaseback can create long-term structural fragility. The cash from selling those 74 properties may have looked attractive in 2015. But it converted a business with hard assets into a tenant with fixed obligations and no safety net. When margins compressed, there was nowhere to absorb the loss.
If you follow business news in the restaurant industry or run a multi-location operation yourself, resources like StartBizWire track business developments and ownership changes that can affect local markets.
The Bottom Line
Frisch’s Big Boy is not completely out of business. Locations are still open. The brand still exists. But the company has lost more than 20 locations since late 2024, faces ongoing eviction proceedings at roughly a quarter of its remaining restaurants, and is dealing with millions of dollars in unpaid rent claims.
The root cause traces back to a 2015 private equity acquisition and a sale-leaseback deal that stripped the company of its real estate assets and left it dependent on fixed lease payments it can no longer sustain.
The most likely near-term outcome is continued downsizing of the traditional Frisch’s footprint, with some closed locations reopening under the Big Boy brand through Big Boy Restaurant Group, and others being converted to competing concepts entirely.
If you want to know whether a specific location is still open, call ahead. Don’t assume—given how fast things are moving, the only reliable answer is a real-time one.
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