Biscuit shop set for Weirton

By PAUL GIANNAMORE, business editor

WEIRTON - Come September, downtown Weirton will have a new place for breakfast and lunch in a familiar place.

A Tudor's Biscuit World restaurant, familiar to travelers across the southern part of the state, will be opening in the former Rax restaurant on Main Street.

The deal for Tudor's to open its first restaurant in the Northern Panhandle was put together by businessman and attorney Dan Guida, whose family also recently opened the Fujiyama Japanese Steak House on Main Street.

"Quality restaurants will provide a spark," Guida said in unveiling the franchise Wednesday morning. "They provide a spark, and people can quit thinking downtown is dead.

"For seven months, we've been proving them wrong already," he said, referring to the success of the Fujiyama restaurant.

Guida brought franchisees Cynthia and Chris Paul together with Tudor's.

Chris Paul, who owns C&C Painting, said he and his wife had wanted to buy a franchise for awhile, and their friend Guida came up with Tudor's.

"There's nowhere quick in downtown on the way to work for people," Paul said in describing the need for Tudor's. "I hope this will bring some positive thinking, more traffic and will lead to other businesses coming."

Cynthia Paul said the family is happy to be providing jobs and to help the downtown area.

The Pauls noted they're already helping the local economy by using local businesses in remodeling the building and getting it ready to open, including contractors Dan Hukill and Randy Doak, a security system from Lauttamus Communications and financing that was done through WesBanco.

Tudor's offers a variety of breakfast platters, ranging in price from $2.09 to $5.39, according to its menu, as well as breakfast biscuits with a variety of meats, cheeses, potatoes and eggs. The lunches include burgers and chicken sandwiches, but also such lunch staples as fried bologna, hot dogs and grilled cheese. Lunch specials change with the day of the week and include creamed chicken on Mondays; cabbage rolls on Tuesdays, baked steak on Wednesdays, meatloaf on Thursdays, a fish dinner for Fridays, chicken fillet strips on Saturdays and roast beef on Sundays, with buttermilk biscuits and two side items available.

Tudor's was established by former state Sen. Oshel Craigo from Putnam County. Guida said he's known Craigo for a while and was familiar with Tudor's from his travels to Charleston and other parts of the state. Tudor's has more than 50 locations, mostly in the Parkersburg/Huntington and Charleston areas. Guida said he had worked for about a year on getting the deal together for the local restaurant.

"I knew the building was available for the past several years, and I had my eye on Tudor's Biscuit World," Guida said. "I talked to Oshel Craigo and he came here and approved the site. The second step was finding someone to operate the franchise. I knew I needed the right people with the right work ethic, and I knew Chris and Cindy wanted a franchise."

The Pauls said the restaurant will have 15 employees initially and could grow if a second shift is added in the future for longer hours of operation.

(Giannamore can be contacted at pgiannamore@heraldstaronline.com.)