Topeka, Kansas · Founded 1948
Since 1948, Bobo's has kept Topeka's carhop-restaurant tradition alive with Spanish-sauce burgers, apple pie, and a surviving 1953 location.
Bobo's Drive In first opened in Topeka on June 4, 1948, when Bob and Elsie Bobo and Frank and Florence Stenger launched a restaurant at 1221 SW Huntoon. The Bobos opened a second location at 2300 SW 10th Avenue in 1953, and that location became the surviving Bobo's after the Huntoon restaurant closed in 1986. Richard and Tricia Marsh have owned the 10th Avenue restaurant since 2007.
Bob and Elsie Bobo and Frank and Florence Stenger opened the first Bobo's at 1221 SW Huntoon in Topeka.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018.
Bob Bobo opened a second Bobo's location at 2300 SW 10th Avenue, using recipes associated with his mother and aunt.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018; Kansas Sampler Foundation, '8 Wonders of Kansas Cuisine: Bobo's Drive In.'
The original Bobo's restaurant on SW Huntoon closed.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018.
Robert Humes bought the 10th Avenue Bobo's, saying he wanted to preserve a Topeka tradition.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018.
Richard and Tricia Marsh purchased Bobo's Drive In. Guy Fieri and the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives production later visited the restaurant that year.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018; Topeka Capital-Journal, August 1, 2026.
Bobo's appeared in Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives Season 3, Episode 7, 'American Classics.'
Source: IMDb, 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: American Classics'; Plex, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Season 3 Episode 7.
Food Network named Bobo's a Kansas 'gem' in coverage recognizing restaurants associated with Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Source: KSNT, 'Food Network names Bobo's Drive-In gem of Kansas,' August 19, 2025.
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Topeka Capital-Journal documents the 1948 Huntoon opening, the 1953 second location, the 1986 closure of the original restaurant, and later ownership transfers at the 10th Avenue location. Those sources establish a strong local business lineage, but the material reviewed does not provide a complete year-by-year record sufficient to certify uninterrupted service throughout the entire period.
Local newspaper history and the Kansas Sampler Foundation both identify 2300 SW 10th Avenue as Bobo's second location, opened in 1953. This establishes the restaurant's opening at the address, not the construction date of the physical building.
The Topeka Capital-Journal, Food Network episode credits, and a 2025 profile identify Richard and Tricia Marsh as the owners who bought Bobo's in 2007. The evidence supports ownership of the restaurant; it does not establish the identity of any separate operating entity or property owner.
A 2025 City Lifestyle profile reports that a plastic bag containing original recipe cards came with the keys when the Marshes purchased Bobo's. This documents the reported transfer of recipe cards, not the full provenance or unchanged use of every recipe.
Bobo's appeared in Season 3, Episode 7, 'American Classics,' which aired May 18, 2008. Contemporary retrospective reporting says the production visited Bobo's in 2007.
The available sources call Bobo's a Topeka tradition since 1948 and recognize it as an important Kansas carhop restaurant, but they do not provide a comparative inventory of earlier surviving Topeka or Kansas drive-in-style restaurants. The register does not certify this citywide or statewide superlative.
The present Bobo's at 2300 SW 10th Avenue was the original 1948 location.
The first Bobo's opened at 1221 SW Huntoon on June 4, 1948. The Bobo family opened the current 2300 SW 10th Avenue location in 1953 as a second restaurant.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018.
The original Bobo's closed in 1988.
The original Huntoon restaurant closed in 1986. Robert Humes bought the still-operating 10th Avenue Bobo's in 1988.
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal, 'Topekans have enjoyed Bobo's for 70 years,' June 28, 2018.
Bobo's appeared in Season 3, Episode 9 of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
Bobo's appeared in Season 3, Episode 7, 'American Classics,' aired May 18, 2008.
Source: IMDb, 'Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: American Classics'; Plex, Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, Season 3 Episode 7.
Bobo's survived by keeping the compact, local carhop-restaurant format that made it a Topeka habit in the first place. The Marshes acquired the business in 2007, retained its longstanding menu and recipes, and operate the 1953 location as an independent restaurant rather than remaking it as a chain-style fast-food outlet. A 2008 appearance on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives added a verified national media connection to an already established local institution.
Bobo's Drive In first opened in Topeka on June 4, 1948, at 1221 SW Huntoon. Bob and Elsie Bobo and Frank and Florence Stenger opened the original restaurant, and the Bobos added a second location at 2300 SW 10th Avenue in 1953. The Huntoon location closed in 1986, while the 10th Avenue Bobo's continued under later owners and has been owned by Richard and Tricia Marsh since 2007.
The available evidence does not establish Bobo's as Kansas's oldest drive-in-style restaurant. Bobo's has a documented Topeka lineage beginning in 1948 and operates a surviving 1953 carhop-restaurant location, but no reliable statewide comparison of earlier surviving roadside restaurants has been completed for this register.
Bobo's did not simply move from its first location: the Bobo family opened a second restaurant at 2300 SW 10th Avenue in 1953 while the original Huntoon restaurant continued operating. The Huntoon location later closed in 1986, leaving the 10th Avenue restaurant as the surviving Bobo's.
Yes. Bobo's appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in Season 3, Episode 7, 'American Classics,' which aired on May 18, 2008. The production visited Bobo's in 2007, and Richard and Tricia Marsh appeared as owners in the episode.
2300 SW 10th Ave, Topeka, KS 66604
(785) 234-4511
Reported hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., with carhop and indoor service; confirm current hours directly before visiting.