According to a message on the company’s Facebook page, Bob Chinn, the restaurateur who founded the suburban institution that bears his name, died at the age of 99 in April 2022.
In a sorrowful letter Friday evening, Bob Chinn’s Crabhouse Restaurant confirmed the death of its “fearless leader, friend, and family member.”
In part, the message stated, “To know him was to love him, and he was known by so many.” “His larger-than-life attitude and famed tastebuds provided us with 99 incredible years of excitement, inventiveness, and innumerable smiles.”
According to its website, Bob Chinn’s Crabhouse, which opened in 1982, has become one of America’s top 100 grossing restaurants and a restaurant industry icon
Chinn and his daughter, Marilyn, had travelled around the United States in 1978 to conduct research for a Midwestern seafood restaurant Chinn had “envisioned for some time.”
Bob Chinn’s has grown to 320 people and serves over one million clients per year since then. Chinn’s life will be commemorated at the restaurant, and more details will be released in the following days.