Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Dead Page-- One Sausage at a Time-- Bob Evans

Bob Evans (1918-2007)

Founder of a restaurant chain: Ohio entrepreneur began food empire with a single truck stop and a search for the best sausage possible; decades later, 579 Bob Evans eateries are spread across 18 states.

Now here is a man who started with little and really accomplished a lot.

Bob Evans died June 21st. After WWII, he started a small, 12 stool restaurant in Gallipolis in southeast Ohio and complained that he just couldn't find really good sausage to serve.

Starting with $1000, a couple hogs, 40 pounds of black pepper, 50 pounds of sage and other secret ingredients, he made his own, using only the best parts of the hog. He began selling it from his restaurant and peddling it to mom and pop stores and even out of tubs in the back of his pickup.

From that, he had $1.6 billion in sales out of 579 restaurants in 18 states and also operated 115 Mimi's Cafe casual restaurants in the west. He also sold products in grocery stores.

June 22nd Chicago Tribune "Founder of restaurant chain" AP

Quite the Rags to Riches Story.

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