The Big Boy at Plymouth Rd. and US-23 will close on June 17. Uncommonly for a national chain, it was a well-known and well-liked community establishment.

Owners Jonathan Marsh and Joe Diequez bought the franchise and property nineteen years ago. Diequez told us that they put the property on the market for “three times what it had been appraised for” and never expected to get an offer. But one came in, Marsh says, at a price too good to refuse.

“It’s bittersweet,” says Marsh, whose photography lines the walls. “A lot of staff have been there the whole time.”

He’ll be retiring to California to become a full-time photographer. “I thank everybody for the nineteen years we had here,” he says. “It was great being in Ann Arbor … The hardest thing is, I’ve known a lot of customers almost all nineteen years. It’s family.”

Diequez says he’ll stick around the area, though he too mourns the loss of a community: “The only way I can describe this is like graduating high school,” he says. “You’ve been here for so long with all these people, and then suddenly it all changes, and you’ll never see them again.”

There may be hope yet for those regulars. Diequez and Marsh both told us they think the new owners are planning a family-oriented restaurant in the same spot.