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A TwoDads Chicken and Fries carryout and drive-thru location is set to open early next year in the former Bob Evans restaurant building at 510 E. Market St., Celina.
CELINA - A popular local food truck is set to expand with a permanent carryout and drive-thru restaurant in the former Bob Evans restaurant on Market Street in Celina, a move the business owner hopes will revitalize the once thriving block.
A permanent TwoDads Chicken and Fries carryout and drive-thru location is set to open early next year at 510 E. Market St. in Celina, thanks to some quick planning from the developers at Bruns Construction Enterprises, TwoDads owner Mitch Long told The Daily Standard.
"It actually came on a lot faster than we anticipated. The building has been sitting there for a while, but the Bruns RCS Construction (developers) were really interested in bringing that back to life," Long said. "Market Street needed a lot of help and that was sort of the precipice of starting that. We were approached with the idea shortly after they had the idea of buying it, and they wanted us to be their premier tenant. We were a little nervous and stuff; I would say overall (the expansion came to be in) only about a couple months."
The former Bob Evans restaurant on Market Street in Celina, which most recently housed a Schwieterman Pharmacy until it closed in July 2021, was sold by 411 Holdings LTD for $800,000 to Bruns Holding Group Inc. on Monday, per the Mercer County Auditor's Office online records.
The southern border of the 1.77-acre property looks out over Grand Lake, though it's surrounded otherwise by several defunct restaurants.
Nearby Market Street buildings include the home of the former Wendy's restaurant that unexpectedly closed on the first weekend in June 2025, and the former Burger King that shut its doors for good at the end of September 2025. A former Dairy Queen down the street at 944 E. Market St. remains vacant after several businesses, most recently, a vape shop, attempted to move in.
"We really care about this community and if we do what we say we're going to do - it goes beyond just donations - it's about rebuilding here," Long said. "Honestly, I'm also tired of driving down Market Street and just seeing all the vacant lots. Dairy Queen that turned into a vape shop. You have Wendy's that's now closed. The 30-year vacant Bob Evans and now Burger King. It's just not a good representation of how beautiful this city is. It's not the perception that we want. We just decided, thanks to the community support, we were going to dig in and find a location that could be home (and) set the tone."
TwoDads Chicken and Fries began as a food truck parked at the Boardwalk Village in Celina in 2023, Long said. He credited the business's success since to longstanding community support.
"People were very receptive in pushing us to try to succeed. I think they saw something different in us and, and we were trying to do something different," he said. "The encouragement from Mercer County and beyond has been incredible. It was definitely the biggest part of why we chose to do this. Knowing that we had that support and the people who wanted to see us win. I don't know, it just reminds me of what makes small towns so special anywhere else. I don't think we would've done it, but because of how special that (community support) is, we're (ready to) just take a leap of faith."
TwoDads Chicken and Fries began as a food truck parked at the Boardwalk Village in Celina in 2023.
Via TwoDads Facebook page
In addition to local support, TwoDads' longstanding partnership with Bruns Construction helped the business flourish from its early days to now.
"I met (BCE president) Randy (Bruns) through the Boardwalk, and RCS in general. They were building up Boardwalk Village, which is becoming now one of the flagship reasons tourism comes in, which is amazing. We were just a little food truck out there and they were kind enough to let us go out there, try, learn, fail and run out of food," Long said. "They let us be authentic in a space that was as beautiful as that. That's what sort of kicked out the relationship. It's a thing of trust. They let me be myself, this weird kid with a blonde mullet, who has done work with Mr. Beast and Logan Paul and all these guys. That built a trust for me. In exchange, we were able to build trust with the clientele that were at the Boardwalk, which is what they were trying to service. We served good chicken, we cared for the community, we gave back when we could. Your relationships tend to grow when both parties come together and trust each other."
BCE is a third-generation, umbrella company consisting of seven primary divisions: Bruns General Contracting in Tipp City, Bruns Building & Development in St. Henry, RCS Construction in Celina, Ohio and Indiana Roofing North in St. Henry, Ohio and Indiana Roofing South in Springfield, Bruns Industrial Construction in Sidney, and Glassco in Piqua.
Other recent BCE projects in Celina include the 104,000-square-foot Celina Tent manufacturing facility, the Boardwalk Village and Fairway Place Apartments.
Now that the sale of 510 E. Market St. has officially closed, Long said BCE is in the midst of planning renovations and land development.
Long was unable to share specific development plans for the property outside of it housing TwoDads, though possible boat docks near the property on Grand Lake's southern edge and picnic tables around it have been floated on the company's social media pages.
Those ideas would fit in perfectly with BCE's plan for the building, as they will lease it to TwoDads Chicken and Fries to operate as a carryout and drive-thru restaurant.
Not only does the carryout model fit in with the TwoDads brand, but it will serve as a workaround to a longstanding deed restriction on the property that prevents it from being operated as a family restaurant that would compete against its former tenant, Bob Evans.
"There was some language in the contracts that are still withheld. You're not allowed to have a family style restaurant - that's like the biggest part of it all. In order to get around that, we're going to function a lot more like traditional chicken places you see in bigger cities. … The world's changing a little bit. I think (sit-down) restaurants have their place, but as far as what the brand identity that we want to be is, we're going to be more of that fast-paced chicken action," Long said. "We're leaning into it because there's so many great places you could take our food to go, especially right off Lake Shore Drive - of course you could go up to the Boardwalk, you could go to the park that's right there that the city just invested in a couple years back. You can take it to picnic tables or you can take it back on a boat. That's the way I want TwoDads to be."
He continued that he and business partner Bill Ray will still operate the TwoDads Chicken and Fries food truck at community events throughout the area.
"That's sort of a staple of what TwoDads is. We still plan to go to the events. We still plan to try to not run out of food and have fun doing what we do on social media," Long said. "But this will make our lives a lot easier having a commissary - that makes the food trucks so much easier to do even smaller events that we typically want to do. This is an upgrade all around."
Long estimated that TwoDads' new brick-and-mortar location, set to open in early 2027, will result in the creation of 10-15 jobs. The restaurant menu will be relatively similar to what's offered at the food truck, with the possible addition of grilled chicken options and limited time offerings, he said.
The decision to expand TwoDads into a physical location would not have been made without the continued support of the region, Long stressed.
"We really would not have gone to a restaurant, and were content just being a food truck. But the community support has been overwhelming," he said "We promise to have fun, we promise to give back, we promise to run this differently than anything they've ever seen. Hopefully it's something that they can be proud of when they talk about their town."
