The former location of both Red’s Restaurant and Poppy’s Kitchen is now home to the first Simple Simon’s Pizza restaurant in Kentucky.

Oklahoma-based Simple Simon’s opened the restaurant in April at 160C River Place Drive near Louisville Road and Porter Pike. The space next to a Dollar General Market was briefly home to Red’s after that restaurant closed its Old Louisville Road location and then to Poppy’s, which closed last year.

Simple Simon’s Marketing and Branding Manager Greg Elwick explained that Bowling Green is a good fit for the chain that now has nearly 200 locations across 10 states.

“It’s about location and demographics,” Elwick said. “Our niche is to locate outside of large metropolitan areas, and we like to have franchise owners who are involved in the community.”

The local franchise owner, Jason Denton, had owned a pizza restaurant in Henderson for four years before signing on with Simple Simon’s.

“I started looking online for franchise opportunities and talked to a few others,” said Denton, who has been in the restaurant business for nearly 20 years. “Simple Simon’s seemed like a good fit.”

Denton explained that Simple Simon’s offers greater variety than many pizza restaurants. The menu includes specialty pizzas in various sizes along with chicken wings, calzones, sandwiches and strombolis.

The restaurant offers a lunchtime buffet with a salad bar Sunday through Friday and an evening buffet Tuesdays and Saturdays.

“Our main seller right now is the calzone,” Denton said. “We have nine different specialty calzones.”

Denton likes the location in a growing area not far from the Kentucky Transpark industrial park and some new residential developments.

“A lot of people work around here,” he said. “The area is still growing. Our lunch business has been pretty steady. We’re still working on our evening crowd.”

It is the first Kentucky Simple Simon’s location, but Denton hints that it won’t be the last.

“They’re looking at locations in Frankfort and Beaver Dam,” said Denton, who also said another Bowling Green location is possible.