How it started
Beginning and consolidation
Bob Evans Restaurants was founded in 1948 by Bob Evans, when he began processing and packaging sausage for his small diner located in Gallipolis, Ohio. Early operations were based at his farm in Rio Grande. As the reputation of his sausage grew, so did the number of guests who visited his farm to buy it in bulk. Friends and family partnered together to establish Bob Evans Farms, Inc., in 1953. The increased traffic led him to build the first company restaurant at the farm in 1962 that was named "The Sausage Shop".
The construction of additional Bob Evans restaurants began some years later. By the mid-1970s, there were 20 locations—all of them still in Ohio—including sites in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton, and smaller markets. By 1980, there were 59 restaurants in seven states. and by 1992 Bob Evans owned and operated 261 restaurants in 16 states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, South Carolina, Missouri, Maryland, New York, Virginia and Texas, with food products retailed in 26 states and the District of Columbia.
After encountering a capacity problem fulfilling large orders, Bob Evans contracted with his cousin Tim Evans of the Evans Packing Company to package Bob Evans Sausage products. Another relative, Dan Evans, served as CEO until his retirement in 2000.
The company acquired Texas-based Owens Country Sausage in 1987. Owing to trademark issues, the company branded its otherwise identical restaurants in Texas as Owens Restaurants. By January 2006, all Owens restaurants had been closed.
The company operated a Mexican-themed restaurant called Cantina del Rio in the mid-1990s, a move that founder Bob Evans called "a disaster" in 2003.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bob Evans Restaurants, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2