It was established in 1999 by Bob Boyce, an American from Harlowton, Montana,[2] and its first restaurant was opened on South Maoming Road in Shanghai in 2002.[3] That year, Boyce had purchased a restaurant operation from Kathleen Lau,[4] a woman from Boston. Boyce arrived in China in 1994 for the purpose of developing his Chinese language skills. Lau had arrived in China in 1996 and started a restaurant that year in Guangzhou, where she had previously instructed courses for the English language. Boyce met Lau at her restaurant and the two collaborated on starting another restaurant.[5]
It established locations in shopping centers catering to upper class customers. In China beef hamburgers are usually eaten as luxury meals; the price of a typical Blue Frog hamburger, in 2017, was equivalent to 15 U.S. dollars.[2] By 2015 the chain had a mapo tofu style hamburger.[6] Circa 2015, there were ten Blue Frog restaurants in China.[7]
Blue Frog became a part of the Blue Horizons Company, which also operated KAPP locations;[7] KAPP is a bistro-style restaurant with a fancier operation.[4]
Locations
In 2015 Blue Frog operated 24 restaurants in seven cities.[6]
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