‟I remember the ice cream stand. We got ice cream every night and I got the same flavor every night, black raspberry and it still is my favorite!” Kathy Martin
‟Ah, the good old days! I remember us kids trying to drench each other by spinning the umbrellas on the tables after it rained.” Todd Parsons
‟Where are the tables? They used to get so mad at us kids for hanging out there, sitting on the tables. Learning tricks on our BMX bikes, doing stunts, skateboards, etc. Dale McFarland driving up telling us we had to move, like everyday. Haha 1986-1994.” Jeffrey W. Clark
Big Bo’s, Inc. was founded by John Gagas and incorporated February 19, 1973 in Oswego. He was then ready to find franchisees to open locations.
In 1974 and 1975, John Conway (Mayor of Oswego 1968-1973), John E. ‟Jack” FitzGibbons (Mayor of Oswego 1976-1980), and Jack Miller (Vice President of Pollution Abatement Services), were all involved in the Big Bo’s business venture.
The small prefabricated red and white structure, resembling a cup of soft-serve ice cream, was intended to be an identifiable icon for each franchised location.
In 1969, Ed Kawar had purchased the Haven Midstate grocery store from Harold Wallace. Ed agreed to be one of the first (if not the only) franchised Big Bo’s ‟fast food chain” location. In 1973, he set the small red and white striped unit up in his parking lot, just east of the grocery store.
Each franchise location had on the menu a complementary dish of ice cream, customers could order for their dogs to enjoy. Does anyone remember seeing this on the menu? It has been said that John Gagas had a dog named Bo, or was it Harold O’Connor‘s dog Bo that the company was named for?
Shortly after starting the venture, the men involved were caught up in a controversy regarding environmental pollution violations by Jack Miller’s Oswego based toxic waste disposal company, Pollution Abatement Services (PAS). It was during FitzGibbons’ time as mayor that PAS was finally shut down. He and Conway and Gagas distanced themselves from their Big Bo’s, Inc. connection with Miller. FitzGibbons claimed he’d only attended one meeting and never knew Miller held stock in the company. Conway, later a Supreme Court judge, stated he had served only as secretary of the company and had incorporated it in 1973 as a private attorney. Interest in promoting the Big Bo‘s franchises fell by the wayside. Gagas later operated an ice cream and frozen yogurt company from a warehouse in Minetto where toxic waste had once been stored.
Ed Kawar continued to operate the Fair Haven location independently. On March 17, 1976, Jay & Marilyn Sawyer bought the store and Big Bo’s from Kawar. Big Bo’s became a landmark summer tradition for ice cream in Fair Haven and continued to serve new generations.
‟My first ever ‘on the books’ job was in this monstrosity of pain. It was a million degrees in that metal cone! You haven’t lived until you’ve cooked 900 hamburgers over a grill during a band concert at the internal body temperature of 206 degrees.” Deidre Martinez
Things cooled down when the old red and white strips were replaced with an entirely new building in the 1980s and burgers were removed from the menu.
In 2000, Tim & Laurie Oleyourryk purchased the store from the Sawyers and changed the name to Bayside Market. They later renovated the look of the ice cream stand the Sawyers had built and added new signage, retaining the name Big Bo’s.
Ed Kawar had learned of the franchise opportunity through a friend who was FitzGibbon’s partner in the insurance business in Oswego and Fair Haven.
If you have any additional information on the history of Big Bo’s, please let us know. (Or about the other burger / ice cream spot at the opposite end of the street, Wilkinson’s Dairy Bar, and its connection with Big Bo’s.)
Was there really a dog named Bo? One of John Gagas’ children would probably know.