Bob Evans, 10/12/1986

From an article in The Herald-Dispatch:

Has Columbus forgotten its roots?

GALLIPOLIS, Ohio -- Have the people in Columbus forgotten where they came from?

That phrase, in several variatioins, is often uttered when people in or near Gallipolis hear that the original Bob Evans Steakhouse is closing.

So what if the steakhouse is cramped, if smoke from the grill drifts over the counter, if you have a hard time being seated a lunchtime?

Some people in Gallipolis talk about the little building on Ohio 7 as if it were a landmark, as if someone had decided to build a warehouse in the ciyt park.

This is the place that expanded into a drive-in next door, where truckers parked their rigs while eating and where the kids cruised on weekends. This was where everything that Evans built -- 161 restaurants, the Farm Festival, the International Chicken Flying Meet, the conservation work, the contributions to 4-H, promoting Rio Grance College and Community College -- began.

. . . Howard Webster, an Iowa City, Iowa, resident who was passing through town with his wife, said, "I ate at this place 25 years ago. It's what got me introduced to Bob Evans. We were on a trip through here. We liked it very much."

The company has no restaurants in his home state, but "I wouldn't mind if they'd put one out there," he said.

. . . But the first steakhouse is not the only original part of the company due for replacement. Evans himself is 68. The mandatory retirement age at Bob Evans Farms Inc. is 70.

In the last few years, Evans has rarely been featured in company advertising. His photo is seen once in the company's most recent annual report, and that was in a group photo of the company's officers.

Evans said Friday that he will be busy after he is forced into retirement, perhaps with his horse farm or dealing in cattle.

. . . Evans said he does not expect to be excluded from the company's advertising forever. After all, he said, even Pepsico is putting the Colonel back into Kentucky Fried Chicken.