Bob Evans Founder Dead at 89

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Bob Evans Founder Dead at 89

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: June 21, 2007

Filed at 5:34 p.m. ET

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Bob Evans, whose quest for quality sausage to serve the truckers who filled his 12-stool, 24-hour-a-day steakhouse in southeast Ohio led to the creation of a restaurant chain that bears his name, died Thursday, Bob Evans Farms Inc. announced. He was 89.

Evans died at the Cleveland Clinic, Evans' family told the company. Bob Evans Farms Inc. said last week that he was being treated for pneumonia.

Evans complained that he could not get good sausage for the restaurant he started after World War II in Gallipolis in southeast Ohio.

Starting with $1,000, a couple of hogs, 40 pounds of black pepper, 50 pounds of sage and other secret ingredients, he opted to make his own, relying on the hog's best parts as opposed to the scraps commonly used in sausage. He began selling it at the restaurant and mom-and-pop stores, and peddled tubs of it out of the back of his pickup truck.

It marked the beginning of what is now a restaurant chain with sales of $1.6 billion in the fiscal year ended April 28 with 590 restaurants in 18 states. The company also operates 108 Mimi's Cafe casual restaurants in 19 states, mostly in the West. Its sausage and other products are sold in grocery stores.

''You might say the truck drivers did my research for me,'' he said. ''They would tell me that this was the best sausage they ever had, and then buy 10-pound tubs to take home.''

Evans formed Bob Evans Farms in 1953 with five friends and relatives. The chain emphasizes farm-fresh food, cleanliness and service in a homey atmosphere.

''People like to deal with farmers. They like to buy stuff from the farm. They think it's fresher,'' Evans said in a 2003 interview. ''In their mind, it's better and they're willing to pay more for it.''

[Jazz Kat]

Good sausages! Especially the maple flavored,

[Teasing the Korean]

In Somerville, MA, there is a funeral home that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Bob Evans restaurant.

[Chuck Nessa]

In Somerville, MA, there is a funeral home that bears an uncanny resemblance to a Bob Evans restaurant.

Try ordering biscuits and sausage gravy.

[Jim Alfredson]

Bob Evans used to be my favorite restaurant as a kid... I'm not joking. I loved the sausage. Now that you can buy it at the store, I have no reason to go to the restaurant and I can't remember the last time I was in one.

Funny story: For years my wife and I had a newspaper clipping from the anniversaries section of this couple in Lansing that had been married 50 years. We kept the clipping because it said they celebrated their milestone by going to Bob Evans.

WOOOOOOO!!!

[GA Russell]

I did't know that the restaurant(s) came before the sausage-in-the-store.

When I was in school in the 70s I used to buy the sausage and make Bob Evans cheeseburgers. Yum!

edit for typo

Edited June 22, 2007 by GA Russell

[Brad]

Never been there. Can get high cholesterol elsewhere.

[Teasing the Korean]

Never seen anyone under the age of 70 go into one of those places. Always these corny old guys in their crayola red sports jackets.

Wonder if they got out alive...

[BruceH]

Never been to one.