LONDON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Weaver's Hot Dogs has been around for 75 years, and though it's faced some hardship over the years, they keep people coming back.
The restaurant, located on 4th Street in London, serves up chili dogs, burgers, and all the other favorites that make it a staple in the downtown area.
Judd Weaver's grandfather opened up Weaver's Hot Dogs back in 1940 and started it all with a family chili recipe.
"It all goes back to the quality of the products we use," said Weaver.
A couple of generations later, Judd, his wife, and their two sons are continuing the family tradition.
The locally-raised beef and other quality ingredients they use may make their food stand out, but the connection with customers takes it up another notch.
"We love seeing everybody come through the door," he said.
Even when it isn't the original door and even when the whole building isn't.
"It's been tough in a lot of ways," said Weaver. "It's been hard to swallow. You know, looking back, we had so much history inside of our building. We had so many old photos, and hundreds of photos that were original to London, late 1800s, and so on."
In 2015, a fire tore through the restaurant, destroying it.
"It's been tough," he says. "Not a day goes by that we don't think of something that we lost, so, it's hard. We moved to this location immediately after it became available, which was a blessing to us at the time."
Moving about a block away felt like a mile at times, but the loyal customers never went far.
"It was tremendous to see everybody come here. It was like we didn't skip a beat, and every day we see our customers come in, it makes us very happy as you can imagine."
For some of them, eating at Weaver's is as routine as it gets.
"We come down to do our grocery shopping or whatever, we usually stop here first," said Patricia Reynolds.
A true family-run business where people feel at home.
