Local restaurants were not willing to buy Evans' sausage, so he started his own, with the first opening on his farm in 1962. These restaurants were designed in a red and white color "Steamboat Victorian" style. The first of these "new" Bob Evans Restaurants was located in Chillicothe, Ohio, but by the early 1970s, the restaurants had expanded throughout Ohio. Expansion into other states was started in the late 1970s. As of 2012, Bob Evans Farms, Inc. was a $1.7 billion restaurant and retail food products company that has restaurants in 19 states.