Sonny’s BBQ, a Florida-based restaurant chain with nearly 100 locations across eight southeastern U.S. states, is bringing its barbecued ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and beef brisket to Bowling Green.

The restaurant will fill a newly created gap in Bowling Green’s restaurant environment, moving into the former site of a Bob Evans restaurant at 145 Three Springs Road.

Bob Evans, an Ohio-based chain owned since 2017 by San Francisco-based Golden Gate Capital, closed its Bowling Green location suddenly Feb. 22.

“I worked all day Monday (Feb. 22),” said Teia Butler, who was a server at the Bob Evans restaurant. “People from corporate (headquarters) were there, and we were told that as of 3 o’clock today we’re shutting down.”

A sign was placed on the door that said: “Thank you for being our guest. This restaurant has closed permanently.”

Sonny’s BBQ is now making plans to renovate the building. A building permit filed Jan. 28 with the city of Bowling Green shows that the barbecue restaurant plans to spend $75,000 on a renovation that includes installing a drive-through window.

That building permit lists Sonny’s BBQ as the applicant and Ira Stein of Yonkers, N.Y., as the property owner.

Stein, who purchased the property from Ber Real Estate Investments of California in 2017 for $1,364,401, confirmed Wednesday in an email that he recently sold the property to Sonny’s BBQ.

According to the sonnys bbq.com website, Sonny’s BBQ was started in 1968 in Gainesville, Fla., by Floyd “Sonny” Tillman and his wife, Lucille Tillman.

Tillman began franchising the Sonny’s brand in 1977 and sold the growing restaurant chain in 1991 to Bob Yarmuth.

Today, according to the website, there are 95 Sonny’s BBQ locations across eight states, with 72 of them in Florida.

Sonny’s, which has Kentucky locations in Corbin, Nicholasville, Richmond and Somerset, has a menu that includes pulled and sliced pork barbecue as well as ribs and smoked turkey.

Bob Evans, which is known for its hearty breakfasts and such lunch and dinner menu items as honey butter chicken and country fried steak, had already been contracting before the coronavirus pandemic put a financial squeeze on the restaurant industry.

The restaurant chain, founded in 1948 by its namesake, operates 445 locations across 18 states and territories.

That number has been falling in recent years. The chain closed 21 restaurants, including one in Owensboro, during 2017.

The Bob Evans restaurant brand was part of Bob Evans Farms Inc. until the sale to Golden Gate Capital.

Bob Evans Farms, a leading producer and distributor of refrigerated potato, pasta and vegetable-based side dishes, pork sausage and a variety of refrigerated and frozen convenience food items, has since 2018 been owned by Post Holdings Inc.

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.