Where Does ‘Bob’s Burgers’ Take Place? See the Real-Life Restaurant

Bob’s Burgers is the ultimate comfort TV, and for creator Loren Bouchard, the Belchers’ house literally feels like home — because he based it on his own apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District.

“It is square foot by square foot identical to the Belchers’ apartment. Not the color, but the layout and the way the building looks from the outside,” Bouchard told SF Gate in May 2022. “And then downstairs, we just plopped the restaurant right in there and made it fit. That really helped me to be able to be an expert on that building.”

While the Belchers’ apartment is an almost exact rendering of his home, Bouchard deliberately made the setting of Bob’s Burgers somewhat ambiguous. He described it to Entertainment Weekly in 2012 as “semi-Springfield,” referencing The Simpsons.

That said, eagle-eyed fans actually do know where Bob’s Burgers specifically takes place.

So, where is Bob’s Burgers set? Here’s everything to know about the real-life places that inspired the beloved show.

Where does Bob’s Burgers take place?

Bob’s Burgers takes place in the fictional town of Seymour’s Bay, named after Bob’s Burgers editor Mark Seymour, writers Nora Smith and Holly Schlesinger confirmed during an October 2015 panel. The writers explained that the town’s name is a play on Seymour’s editing bay.

Fans of the show first heard the name of the Belchers’ hometown in season 9, episode 1, “Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now,” when a newscaster announced that the titular boy band was in the “Seymour’s Bay area” in their search for a fourth singer.

The official Bob’s Burgers X account also references Seymour’s Bay.

What state is Bob’s Burgers supposed to be in?

While Smith and Schlesinger declined to definitively reveal which state Bob’s Burgers takes place in, it’s generally accepted that the show is set in New Jersey.

This theory is evidenced in season 3, episode 18, “It Snakes a Village,” in which the Belchers plan a drive down to Florida to visit Linda’s parents.

A map of their trip shows the family leaving from New Jersey (though the map also has New York City as part of the Garden State, as well).

Is Bob’s Burgers set in San Francisco?

Bob’s Burgers doesn’t take place in San Francisco, but several elements of the Bay Area play a prominent role in both the series and in the lives of its creators.

“It can’t be San Francisco, which is what many people think. It has all that Victorian architecture from San Francisco because I was living there when we developed the show, but we set it firmly in the Northeast because of the way Linda sounds, and Teddy,” Bouchard told EW. “There’s just so much East Coast in those voices, we just couldn’t take it out. It would’ve been too weird to have her doing that voice — you’d have to constantly be explaining that she’s a transplant or whatever.”

Several of the landmarks in Seymour’s Bay are homages to the Bay Area, including the exterior of the Wharf Arts Center resembling the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts and Mr. Fischoeder’s mansion being a dead ringer for the Winchester Mystery House, KQED pointed out.

There are many connections between the region and the show: A drum and bass performance at a nightclub under Bouchard’s San Francisco apartment inspired the show’s theme song, he told SF Gate; Jay Howell, the artist who designed the characters, used to be a barista in San Francisco’s Atlas Cafe, KQED reported; and Sirron Norris, a San Francisco-based artist, designed the backgrounds and architecture featured in the show, including the eatery itself.

“I knew his work from walking around the Mission [District]. His murals were everywhere, and he knew how to capture what made those buildings unique,” Bouchard told SF Gate of Norris. “He’s really part of the DNA of the show in a lot of ways.”

Some Bay Area natives may have picked up on another clue that San Fran inspired the show as well: Bob’s voice.

“I’m doing a San Francisco accent. That’s what I committed to doing early on in the show,” voice actor H. Jon Benjamin revealed to SF Gate. “I don’t know if people in San Francisco picked that up, but that was my tip of the cap to that area. You can hear it. I’m doing it now.”

Is Seymour’s Bay based on a real place?

According to Bouchard, Seymour’s Bay is loosely based on Coney Island and the Jersey Shore, with elements of San Francisco and New England thrown in as well.

“Because it’s this seaside, past-its-prime, dusty old town, we kind of felt like that puts it pretty close to those Coney Island, New York-New Jersey shore parts,” he explained to Entertainment Weekly. “I grew up in the New England area, and there were lots of beach towns like it, though we don’t want to be in New England, partly because Family Guy has Rhode Island sewn up. But basically, I picture it somewhere in the outer boroughs or on the northern Jersey shore.”

Is Bob’s Burgers based on a real restaurant?

Yes, it is — and it’s in San Francisco.

The Just for You Cafe, now Giuliana’s Just for You Cafe, serves as the inspiration for Bob’s Burgers restaurant, according to KQED: Specifically, the window between the kitchen and the front counter, which allows Bob to interact with Linda, his kids and his customers, is a major feature in the real-life eatery as well.

Bouchard told SF Gate the window was “bolt of lightning big” in terms of how it inspired the series, explaining that it reminded him of a “children’s puppet theater.”

Bob’s menu in the show, however, is original, as Giuliana’s Just for You Cafe focuses on a southern-meets-TexMex style of cuisine and serves breakfast all day. They do, however, have burgers available for lunch.