“Now when my grandmother would go there when it was the trailer,” says Jessica. And like Jessica, her grandmother was a fan of Bob’s Footlongs, too.
She says her grandmother owned the restaurant at Six Rivers Lodge and Resort in Mad River, where Jessica and her mother worked alongside her. But she’s ready to make the switch to the restaurant business, to which she’s no stranger. Jessica Milich, who’ll be running the shop day to day with the help of her mother Neleen Nichols, has been working in healthcare as executive director at Sequoia Springs Senior Living Facility. The Miliches plan to stick to the storied shop’s style, as evidenced by the familiar orange-striped logo with its sly Dachshund on the building and online, where they are accepting applications.
The Miliches, who’ve purchased the business and will rent the space, which is still owned by Mike and Karen Smith. They passed the business down to their son and daughter-in-law Mike and Karen Smith, who kept the tradition going before selling to Jose and Tanya Moreno. Eventually it moved into the brick-and-mortar location at 505 12th St., where it throve under owners Ozzie and Joanne Smith. In 1949, Bob Broome and Lula Mclure opened Bob’s Footlong as a mobile business selling hot dogs at the Humboldt County Fair and later by the Fortuna movie theater on Main Street.
