More dining choices

Looking for beer, wings and sports-

Buffalo Wild Wings, also known as BW3s, is coming to Culpeper and will be the third sports bar to meet those game-thirsty needs.

Soon to locate in the Kohl's shopping center on James Madison Highway, the Minneapolis-based restaurant chain is slated to open here in March or April 2008.

The Culpeper restaurant is franchise-operated and one of 440 BW3s nationwide.

It will consist of between 35 and 45 televisions, as many as eight four-foot projection screens and an outside deck.

"Anywhere in the restaurant, you will be able to see numerous TVs," said regional marketing manager Jeffrey Miller.

For the chicken lovers, there is yet another camping opportunity for free food; Buffalo Wild Wings offers the first 100 guests free wings for one year.

Once the restaurant opens, it will partner with local sports teams to give away free tickets and fan packages, which include a limo ride and good seats at a local sporting event - perhaps even tickets to a Redskins game, Miller said.

More eatery options
Buffalo Wild Wings is not the only new restaurant coming to the area.

Just down the road in the Target shopping center, a new Italian restaurant will feature unique pizza.

Ledo Pizza and Pasta, based in Annapolis, Md., is known for its square pizzas and pepperoni that is 15 times thicker than industry pizza standards.

It was voted one of America's top five best pizzas, according to Oprah.

James Beall is president of the family-owned business that has been in existence for 52 years.

He grew up eating lots of pizza and washing even more dishes for his grandfather, Robert Beall, who started the business in 1955 and began franchising in 1989.

Ledos restaurants are mostly in Virginia, but also in Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.

As for Culpeper, Beall said it's an area he liked and has been watching for years.

If you're not into sports and beer or extra-thick pepperonis, maybe pancakes pique your taste buds.

International House of Pancakes is almost complete and set to open in the Target shopping center mid-February.

And, rumor has it that Hunter Chapman, a member of the business group opening two new hotels on Lovers Lane, is trying to bring an Outback Steakhouse to Culpeper.

"We are talking with Outback," Chapman said. "We want a restaurant with a bar but we don't want to make it a local watering hole."

Outback representatives said the company has not signed a lease and could not confirm if it was considering coming to Culpeper.

Of the proposed hotels on Lovers Lane, Hampton Inn and Suites has already broken ground and is scheduled to open its 98-room hotel next year. The year after that, Chapman said, a 100-room Homewood Suites is slated to open.

"We are making this a conference and convention center," Chapman said. "We have 10 acres for two hotels, restaurants, hopefully Outback - we're trying to make this a destination point and we got a head start on everybody else. … Culpeper has a lot to offer."

Liz Mitchell can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 110 or .