At the Bun Boy diner in the Mojave Desert town of Baker, you can measure the blistering heat with the world's biggest thermometer, then cool off with what some consider the world's best strawberry shake.
For nearly three-quarters of a century, Baker has been home to the family-run Bun Boy restaurant and, more recently, its towering thermometer, landmarks on Interstate 15 well known to any Las Vegas road tripper.
But last month Bun Boy's ailing owner sold the property to a former Burger King franchisee, leaving many a highway traveler wondering if the famous pit stop might soon be a graveyard for yet another symbol of California's car culture. The answer is an emphatic no, according to Steve Carter, a Baker businessman and the restaurant's new owner.
"You know how they say, 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it?' " Carter said. "Well, we feel it isn't broken."
In many ways, Bun Boy is Baker, an unincorporated town 180 miles east of Los Angeles with a population of about 400. For decades the diner was the main roadside attraction among a handful of businesses on the lonely gravel stretch just off the highway. But by the late 1990s, Baker had begun to boom and Bun Boy found itself having to compete with new, better-known restaurant franchises.
But new owner Carter says the 134-foot-tall thermometer will stay, as will the famous shakes and the pudgy, hamburger-wielding Bun Boy mascot that's been around since the 1950s.
Willis Herron, the former owner, said that's exactly what he intended.
"I had offers from larger corporations," Herron said. "But I imagine they would have changed the name real quick and turned it into a McDonald's or something else."
The 76-year-old Herron decided to sell out recently when he learned he needed triple-bypass heart surgery. He wanted to hand off his modest Baker empire--the 256-seat Bun Boy, two motels, a gas station, a convenience store known as the winningest Lotto outlet in California and 110 acres of land--to someone he could trust.
Carter has been Herron's friend for nearly 20 years. He already owns several of the 30 businesses in Baker. Now he is aiming to build homes and bring in more retail business.
The sale to Carter is the first time the restaurant, which opened in 1926, has completely changed ownership. (Herron entered a partnership with Bun Boy's original owner in the '50s.) Neither Herron nor Carter would disclose the selling price.
