Farmer Boys, the Original Fastaurant

by Joe Lyons

That place with the golden arches is not the only chain to have its roots here in the Inland Empire. In 1981, a family of Greeks from Cyprus started a restaurant south of Riverside in Perris. They built it not just on family recipes but also on a family tradition of service to strangers.

Today, there are more than 30 Farmer Boy’s “Fastaurants” throughout Southern California, and more are on the way. Much like other convenience food facilities that we have visited recently, Farmer Boy’s is more than fast food and less than a coffee shop. Come on in, breakfast, lunch or dinner, order up and friendly help will bring you your order.

We have called this several things in these pages. Farmer Boys calls it “fastaurant” service.

Most of the fast food places rely on a very small menu. Simpler, they believe, is better. Farmer Boys has a wide selection including seafood, humongus salads, specialty sandwiches, a long list of sides, grilled items, burger choices and more. There are even dinner combos that include soup, salad, onion rings and toast.

We chose to dine at the new facility in Rialto, although, as you read this, there are much newer ones around. The decor is very “country kitchen,” a theme that is even carried in the restrooms. While the atmosphere is casual, the mood is much greater than other places that you might tend to compare it to.

I ordered up a heart stopper, the bacon cheeseburger, along with a cup of chile.

The burger was very good, better than I expected, and the chile would best be described as Marie Callender’s quality. That means, not “chile cook-off” standards but much better than any canned stuff. I ate it with a folk, if that tells you anything.

My partner had the harvest turkey sandwich with onion rings. The turkey was probably from a loaf, but the sandwich, as a whole was not bad. The onion rings came without salt, allowing us to flavor the taste. And they were dry, not slimy.

Two other items that we tried were the east coast pastrami, which stood up to its name, and the humble grilled cheese, which other places try to make fancier than it should be. Dare I say, Farmer Boys makes a grilled cheese just like mom use to make.

The only problem with the order-and-sit format is that you can’t add to your meal later without going back up to the counter, but that is a small price to pay. The servers come around to fill your drinks and there is no rush. I think we sat there for three hours or so and solved most of the problems of the world. There, inside of Farmer Boys in Rialto, I found very few problems.

The Farmer Boys that we reviewed is at 1310 W. Baseline Rd. in Rialto. Check on line at FarmerBoys.com for other locations.

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