Breakfast restaurant fetches four-legged customers

By Becky Blanton
Danville Register & Bee
Published: April 7, 2008

It’s 11:00 a.m. and it’s time to make the biscuits. For hundreds of dogs around Danville that’s welcome news. Some banks offer dog treats.

And many area fast-food restaurants admit that pet owners will buy burgers and chicken nuggets for their canine passengers. But only Biscuitville actually caters to biscuit-lovers’ dogs by baking dog-bone-shaped biscuits every day.

“They love their biscuits,” Thelma Richardson, assistant manager of the Patton Street Biscuitville, said of the canine customers.

“You can see it in their body language. They just wiggle all over. They can’t wait to get to the window.”

The biscuits the dogs so eagerly anticipate are made from the same buttermilk, flour and shortening as the ones their owners eat.

Richardson picks up a sharp knife and slices open a pre-measured amount of shortening into a bowl of flour.

“It’s the exact same biscuit,” she said. “It’s just shaped different.”

The restaurant even has its own special dog bone biscuit cutter — and it’s as heavy duty as the circular cutter. The dog bone-shaped biscuits are cut from the same dough, baked on the same tray and run through the same oven as their round counterparts.

Treating Man’s best friend

For every tray of “people biscuits,” the traditional round-shaped biscuit, there are one or sometimes two dog biscuits. It’s a way of utilizing the scraps of dough that would otherwise be thrown away or wasted.

Turning the dough into golden brown biscuits as treats for man’s best friend is a way to share Biscuitville’s fondness and support of animals.

“We know they’re special to their owners,” Richardson said of the dogs. “So they’re special to us, too. We like giving them their treats.”

Biscuitville, with three locations in Danville, is known for its breakfast fare of pancakes, grits and a variety of biscuit sandwiches. The restaurant’s traditional buttermilk biscuit is the foundation for a variety of breakfast biscuits that include bacon, ham, egg, chicken, bacon-egg-cheese and sausage biscuits. The restaurant is only open during breakfast hours — 6 a.m. until 2 p.m.

There is usually no chance of running out of the dog biscuit-inspired treats. Employees make fresh biscuits from scratch throughout the day and from every batch a dog biscuit or two is made.

Once a tray of regular biscuits comes out of the oven, the dog-bone-shaped biscuit is taken off of the tray and stored in a Tupperware container until it’s needed. The biscuits are wrapped in paper and stored by the drive-through register until a dog is spotted in a customer’s car.

“When we see they have a dog, we ask them (customers) if they’d like a free biscuit for their dog,” Sharon Lipford said. Lipford works the drive-through window at the restaurant.

“The dogs are usually in the back seat,” she said, “Sometimes they’ll be in the front and they’ll try to come over the owner to get to the window. They know they’re getting a biscuit. But we get owners with cats in the car, too. We have one lady that brings her cat and her dog. They both like the biscuits.”

Some like ‘em, some don’t

Lipford said employees always ask if the dog is allowed to have a treat or likes bread before offering the owners a biscuit.

“Some dogs will eat them and some won’t,” she said.

“We’ve never had anyone just want a dog biscuit,” Richardson said. “Usually the owner buys something for themselves and we just offer the biscuit.”

“Some of the owners will buy the dog a bacon or ham biscuit, too,” Lipford said.

“But we still give them the (dog-bone-shaped) biscuits if they want them.”

No one’s quite sure when or how the dog biscuit baking got started, but Richardson said it’s been going on at least three years, ever since she’s been there.

Not all Biscuitville locations do it, but most do, employees said.

Dogs aren’t allowed inside the restaurant because of health department regulations, but owners don’t mind going through the drive-through.

Biscuits Fine in ‘small doses’

While “people food,” can sometimes be bad for animals, buttermilk biscuits are fine, according to local veterinarians.

“Biscuit bread may cause an upset stomach in some dogs,” Dr. Ayse Washington, of the Reidsville Veterinary Hospital, said.

“In small doses, like for a treat, it’s fine,” he said.

Washington warned that if a dog hasn’t had biscuits before, owners should just watch how their dog responds. Some may have diarrhea, but most are fine.

The only other thing a dog may suffer is the same thing people do when overindulging — they gain weight on too many biscuits, Washington said. Other than that, doctors say buttermilk biscuits in moderation are fine for dogs.

Dwayne Hendley, a hospital employee, said giving dogs treats is just human nature and that people, himself included, tend to spoil their dogs with treats.

Biscuitville’s practice has instilled a loyal following among the fast food restaurant’s pet owning patrons.

“We have regulars who come in every day, or every weekday,” Lipford said. “They’ve just gotta have their biscuit.”

Contact Rebecca Blanton at or (434) 791-7984.