Captain Paul’s Firehouse Dogs, the seasonal hot dog stand on Princeton Pike, re-opened for business in April after taking its traditional winter break.
That’s not the news. The news is that, for the first time since 2009, Paul Tweedly wasn’t the one opening the doors.
Captain Paul’s Firehouse Dogs on Princeton Pike in Lawrence. (Facebook photo.)
In December, Paul Tweedly, aka “Captain Paul,” cited his health as a reason to seek a buyer for the Lawrence-based eatery. Tweedly and wife Janice are the original owners of the restaurant, operating it for the past 15 years.
In Patrick Jones and his mother, Debbie, the Tweedlys believe that they have found the right people to take the business forward.
With the deal sealed at the end of March, the new owners immediately got to work getting ready for the new season. On April 21, they re-opened, while making it clear that their goal is to retain as much of the spirit and character of the restaurant as possible.
That includes welcoming back staff from the previous season as well as continuing Captain Paul’s commitment to providing an extra level of service to area first responders as well as members of the military.
They have access to some key advisers during this transition: Paul and Janice Tweedly. The couple has pledged to help the Joneses get up and running in any way that they can.
Patrick Jones is a long-time Ewing resident who graduated from Ewing High and Rider University. Mom Deb is a recently retired school paraprofessional at Lawrence Intermediate School who still does some substitute teaching.
Patrick is a special education teacher with Mercer County Technical Schools. “That’s been my full-time career, but when I saw the post on Facebook (announcing that Captain Paul’s was for sale), I turned to my mom and said, ‘Wouldn’t it be crazy if we bought this?'” he said. “We reached out to Paul and Janice and it all just worked out.”
Patrick intends to continue with his full-time job during the week. Deb is set to take the lead then, with the mother-and-son team sharing the workload on weekends until the summer, when Patrick will have regular time off from school to devote to the restaurant.
As far as the menu, Patrick said the plan is to keep things pretty much the way they were.
“We might simplify it to start,” he said. “Whatever we do, I want to be at 100% from the start and build from there.”
Patrick Jones and his mom, Deb Jones, are the new owners of Captain Paul’s Firehouse Dogs in Lawrence. (Facebook photo.)
There are more than 20 varieties of hot dog on the full Captain Paul’s menu, including the Boot Camp (topped with bacon, chili and cheese), the Omar Vasquez (topped with baked beans and potato salad) and the Deputy Dog, topped with mustard and cole slaw.
There are also more than 20 sandwiches on the full menu, all served on a torpedo roll. They include the Combat Veteran (barbecued chicken tenders dipped in Buffalo sauce, garlic sauce and curly fries) and the TCNJ (pork roll, bacon, cheddar cheese, steak fries, chipotle sauce and cole slaw).
The restaurant serves side dishes like french fries, fried pickles, chili and pretzel bites. Sweet treats include Italian ice, gelati, ice cream sundaes and root beer floats.
“We call and text Paul and Janice pretty much every day,” Patrick said. “They’ve been available whenever we need, whether it was Paul showing me the different machines and how they work, or Paul and I going around so Paul could introduce me to different vendors. We went to Restaurant Depot—he helped me do my first order.”
The Tweedlys gave the Joneses a list of staff members, and they reached out to all of them and offered them jobs for the new season. “For the most part, everyone who wanted to is coming back,” Patrick said.
For Paul and Janice Tweedly, the time had come to take a step back from running a restaurant. Paul has undergone heart and stomach surgeries in recent years, and his doctor told him he would require more surgeries in the future if he continued to work at the same pace.
They also wanted to take more time to spend with their granddaughter.
“I had to put the place up to sale,” Tweedly said. “I was hoping we could find a person just like Patrick and his mother Debbie who would take the place and keep it the same. It means a lot to us.”
Tweedly had recently turned 50 in 2009, when he and Janice first opened the restaurant. He served the Trenton Fire Department Engine 3 for 26 years prior to retiring.
Since its opening, Captain Paul’s has been decorated with first responder ephemera. The walls and windows are filled with the badges and stickers of local emergency service outfits, and Captain Paul’s has regularly run fundraising campaigns for local emergency services personnel and their families.
“I call it a community hub because we get to do a lot of things for the community,” Tweedly said. “We tried to support the community, and they supported us. We have kids who were coming in as customers when they were children, and now they work at the place.”
In recent years, Captain Paul’s has collected aluminum can tabs to turn in to local recyclers in exchange for cash. The proceeds have gone to support fundraising projects including free meals for emergency responders and armed forces personnel.
“That’s just been an amazing thing,” Tweedly said. “I’m gonna give Patrick extra money that was left over from when we had the place so he can continue the tradition of giving, especially for the military guys. We want to make sure we take care of them. Janice and I will be around to help them transition the place and get it going. We’ll help them out as much as we can for the time being. I’m sure they’ll find some other people to help them out along the way.”
Captain Paul’s Firehouse Dogs has a new logo.
The Captain Paul’s logo has for years been a dalmatian wearing a firefighter’s hat with the number 343 on it. The logo doubles as a memorial for the firefighters who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York City.
Now, the Joneses have added their own twist to the logo: a second dog in a police hat holding an ice cream cone. Patrick turned to students from Mercer County Technical Schools to create the new composite design. The police dog is patterned after Debbie’s dog, Walter.
Patrick said that he and Debbie look forward to maintaining that connection to the community and even adding their own special touches. For example, they have already been in touch with Lawrence Township public schools, where they have connections, looking to build a new partnership.
“We knew the value to the community the Captain Paul’s has,” Patrick said. “What Paul and Janice built, we wanted to keep that going as something that will impact the community and create opportunities for the community to do great things.”
For now, the Joneses intend to keep the business seasonal. Any changes to the schedule would come after they are up and running at full strength. “We’re going to see what the demand is and what we’ll do at that point. I do hope to maybe expand someday, but first, we want to keep our focus on what the business is now, and be at 100%.”
Web: captainpaulsdogs.com.
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