IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
ABOVE: The original Bob Evans restaurant in Gallia County, which opened in 1961.
Down Home in Gallia The original Bob Evans Farm transitions to historical site STORY BY JIMMY FARMER // PHOTO BY MORRIS WEIN
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he hills of Rio Grande clear into green fields and white fences. Among these fields sits a restaurant, silo and barn, all with the name of the farm’s owner written across in script. The name might be connected to restaurants all over the country, but in Gallia County, the man, his family and his farm are the first things that come to mind. “Originally [the farm] was purchased by his father Stanley back in the 1940s,” says Robert Fradette, vice president of marketing communications at Bob Evans Restaurants. “They had moved there and decided on that farmland just for the area. They thought it would be a good place for the family.” Bob Evans started his journey by making sausages to sell at his 12-seat diner and at grocery
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stores in Gallipolis. To accommodate the success of his sausages, Evans inherited the farm and moved to the homestead in 1953. Evans, his wife, Jewell, and their children lived on the farm’s homestead, which was built in 1820 and originally served as a stagecoach stop. During that time in Rio Grande, Evans began to run advertisements inviting people to come down and visit his farm. The number of visitors lead to the creation of the first restaurant in his franchise, a fourtable and six-stool location right on the farm, in 1961. “That was just home and that is where he started the business,” Jeff Weaver, a friend of Evans, says. The franchise has now grown to 500 locations and the first restaurant on the farm today now seats 134 customers. Despite the success, Evans never changed.
