Big J's

Jed's Burger Bar was opened in 1959 by Jed and Helen Robinson, known today as Big J's, located on the West side of US Highway 91. Big J's was selected as a location for filming the teen comedy Napoleon Dynamite.

They serve food from burgers, fries, hot dogs, pizza, subs, burritos, tacos, salads, kids meals, and sodas including Coca-Cola and Pepsi products. They also serve desserts like shakes, ice cream cones, sundaes, floats, banana splits, cookies, falata, and FREEZE ice. 

History

Albert Moser, the father of Helen Robinson told Helen and Jed to open a business located on the highway where high traffic was available. With support from personal families and many individuals and families in Richmond, Jed's Burger Bar opened in April 1959 with burgers at a price of 25¢. At the time, it was a simple building for individuals to park their vehicles, and waiters/waitresses would come and take orders and deliver the food to your car. It wasn't until the 1970s that an inside dining room and awning were added to the building. Later, they built a two-port carwash that was demolished sometime between 2013-2015.1

In 1993, Jed and Helen sold the business to Robert and Nancy Egbert who currently own the store, renaming the business to Big J's.1

In 2005, the original building where Jed's Burger Bar opened was demolished due to the expansion of Highway 91 from two lanes to four lanes. Before the building was demolished, the business put on a show, and a Napoleon Dynamite costume contest. The new building was bigger than the previous building and allowed Big J's to offer more food options like pizza from Pizza Villa and American-Mexican food from TacoMaker.1 In 2020, TacoMakers sign on the Big J's building was removed. 

Filming of Napoleon Dynamite

In 2003, Big J's was selected as a location for the filming of the sitcom Napoleon Dynamite. An article from Valerie Phillips describes why Big J's in Richmond was used as part of the movie.

"This is the site in the movie where, over shakes and onion rings, Kip tells Uncle Rico about his online girlfriend LaFawnduh. Johnson said that the movie’s director, Jared Hess, was from Preston and knew the restaurant’s owners. They also own another Big J in Preston, which was a lot nicer-looking. But Hess specifically asked to film at the Richmond location, as he was going for a more shabby, grubby backdrop. Since then the Richmond Big J’s has been renovated and spiffed up, so the grubby look is gone. Johnson remembered that the scene was shot around 6 a.m. to avoid a lot of customers walking in. Staffers had to be really quiet, he said. At the time, Jon Gries, who played the Uncle Rico role, was already known for a few roles — Men in Black (1997) and The Rundown (2003). So staffers asked to take photos with him. 'But we didn’t know what to think of the weird guy in the moon boots,' Johnson said of actor Jon Heder. 'He stayed in character the whole time.'"2

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