A new restaurant has everybody talking in Tyrone and for good reason. The specialty is “homestyle cooking” which is showcased with a full breakfast and lunch menu.
Owners of Thelma’s Cafe , Tim and Donna Wahl also own a restaurant in Huntingdon titled Donna’s. They recently bought and renovated what used to be Hullihens Pizza in Tyrone and transformed it into Thelma’s Cafe.
“We just opened up. We want to get the feel of everybody around and see what’s going on,” said Tim Wahl of the plans of the restaurant.
For example, last week when the restaurant first opened, the hours of operation were 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Then, people kept asking if it could open earlier so that they could eat breakfast before going to work. Now, this week Wahl has changed the hours to 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. He said that he and his wife are just taking it one day at a time and making changes like this when they feel it is necessary.
Before the restaurant opened its doors last week, Wahl took about three weeks to renovate the building. A. A. Contracting and Buck Anders helped with the work. The building needed to be cleaned and painted. Other people that helped the Wahl’s get started were Deb and Don Boonie, Danette and Pat Leeper, Patty and Jeremy Anders and Peanut and Sherry Miller.
“We put new floor in, put new ceilings in, and had a lot of plumbing to do because it froze up,” said Wahl. “I put a new counter in and redid the kitchen.”
Once the building was ready to go, the focus was ready to move to all of the food that Donna prepares herself. For breakfast, almost any kind of egg or omelet is available. For lunch, there is hot meatloaf, hot turkey, hot ham, hot beef sandwiches, steak sandwiches, monte cristos, reubens and hamburgers.
“She makes everything herself,” said her husband. “All the pies she makes. She makes a chocolate cake with peanut butter icing that everybody dies for.”
Other pies and cakes that are available are coconut cream pie, apple pie, apple dumplings, cinnamon rolls and pumpkin rolls. Also, Donna is always baking and cooking something new.
The Wahl’s are pleased with the initial response for the restaurant and hope that business continues to do well.
Tim said, “It surprised me. We just told a few people we were going to open, and we were basically going to wait to do any advertising, and it’s increased daily.”
Thelma’s Cafe is open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the number is 684 – 1363. Delivery is not available. Donna’s in Huntingdon is located in Mount Plaza by Hoss’s, and it offers full family dinners. The hours of operation are from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Tim of the future of Thelma’s Cafe. “As of right now, we’re here. We cover forty-some seats we have, and it’s big enough for us. That’s what we wanted.”
