What's Cooking? Firehouse Diner brings homestyle food to Weber City

Firehouse Diner in Weber City offers food unique to its area, homestyle country cooking made from the heart.Kelly and David Langrel are the owners of Firehouse Diner. David said it has always been their dream to open a restaurant."We wanted to open a restaurant because it was a dream of ours," David said. "All my life, I've had to cook for myself. I was raised on old country-style food, and it's always been my dream to share what I've learned over the years in cooking and preparing food with other people."David said he cooks the food you would eat at home."There's not a lot of places around here that offer the food that we do," David said. "Our specials are what you would eat at home like soup beans, cornbread and meatloaf sandwiches. It's not something you could run out and pick up like McDonald's. We wanted to offer the community different food at an affordable price and something that people would want to come back and have."The Firehouse Diner offers things like burgers, hotdogs, a weekend breakfast buffet, biscuits and gravy, and fried potatoes.David said the food is fresh and homemade."I take a lot of pride in what we cook here," David said. "I put my heart into this place. This restaurant is not just a place where you come and order a hamburger, and it's been frozen in a bag this entire life. Here, the food is made fresh. What I've always wanted to do is provide fresh, good-quality food to people in our community, and we have nothing else like that here."The restaurant is named in honor of the Weber City Fire Department, which owns the complex that it's located inside. David said that since a firehouse would be beside the restaurant one day, they wanted to name it after the fire department.Firehouse Diner has a variety of dishes that are named after fire department terms and tools. We asked David the following questions:Q: How long has your restaurant been in operation?A: Since Oct. 4, 2023.Q: What do you consider the specialties at your restaurant and why?A: Homemade hotdog chili, coleslaw, cornbread, all made from scratch.Q: What is your culinary education, and how did you learn to do what you do in the kitchen?A: I'm self-taught mostly. I also learned from my grandmother by watching her cook the old-fashioned way.Q: Why is your restaurant appealing to customers, and how do you maintain that ambiance?A: By preparing fresh quality food at a price people can afford.Q: How do you think your restaurant differs from other restaurants in the Tri-Cities region?A: We have a family-friendly atmosphere, and we sell food that a lot of restaurants don't serve.Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of your location?A: The advantage is that we are located at an intersection with a traffic light and ample parking. The only disadvantage is we can only seat 100 people at this time.Q: How often do you change the menu at the restaurant, and why?A: We don't change the menu. We have daily specials that we advertise, but the actual menu stays the same. Occasionally, we will have something requested by a customer for a limited time only.Q: What's your favorite cookbook?A: I don't really have a favorite cookbook. Most of my recipes are stored in my memory.Location: 1680 US-23, Weber City, VA 24290Phone: (423) 350-2669Website: https://www.facebook.com/p/Firehouse-diner-61551715204213/Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.Visit the online version to view exclusive video content.