A Bowling Green native and restaurant veteran has returned home swinging into the marketplace of sandwich shops by opening up a competitive option for the lunch and dinner crowd.

In a place penetrated mostly by Subway, Jimmie John’s and local coffeehouses that offer sandwiches, Gary and Debbie Wilson debuted Linzie’s Exceptional Sandwiches on Monday.

The restaurant at 1971 Cave Mill Road offers 48 varieties of baked sandwiches, ranging from traditional favorites like buffalo chicken, roast beef, turkey, chicken and ham sandwiches to unique options like a Monte Cristo sandwich that includes powdered sugar and grape jelly.

Co-owner Debbie Wilson said a person could eat at Linzie’s for two months straight and would find something different to eat each day.

The restaurant also features hand-dipped milkshakes, grab-and-go warm cookies, salads and soups.

Other than a wide variety of choices, Debbie Wilson said the restaurant is competitive with its customer-centric hospitality.

&#8220Nobody really does that anymore,” Wilson said.

Customers enter Linzie’s and are usually greeted by an employee who is there to help explain how its ordering station operates.

Wilson said having customers look at the menu and fill out a ordering sheet gives them the ability to think through what they want, instead of feeling rushed.

And instead of being assigned a number, customers’ first names are entered into the computer with each order, something Wilson said makes the experience personable.

&#8220We want customers to know we care about them and if something isn’t right, we want to fix it,” Wilson said.

Walking into Linzie’s may deceive you into thinking that the restaurant is a franchise, something co-owner Gary Wilson doesn’t mind.

Wilson worked for Captain D’s restaurant for more than 25 years before leaving the company as a vice president a couple of years ago. His wife, Debbie, also worked for the company.

The branding, customer service, red decor and overall structure of the restaurant illuminates the Wilsons’ food sector experience.

The couple hopes to build its brand to a loyal set of Bowling Green customers and eventually expand into other areas in the city, and possibly near Hendersonville, Tenn., where the couple resides.

&#8220We’re in the process of developing a menu to do catering and delivery,” Wilson said.

Linzie is actually the name of the couple’s 11-year-old daughter.

Gary Wilson’s sons Josh and Jordan also work in the restaurant.

Linzie’s Exceptional Sandwiches is open from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. The restaurant can be reached by phone at 842-7666 and 842-7444 by fax.

In other restaurant and food news:

€The much-anticipated Starbucks Coffee Company at Campbell Lane and Nashville Road is set to open by the fall, according to Kelly Hand, regional marketing specialist for the company.

&#8220The new coffee house will be 1,850 square feet and feature a drive-through,” Hand said.

This location will employ 20 to 30 partners or employees.

The second Starbucks will join Bowling Green’s current location at 2808 Scottsville Road.

Hand said that anyone wanting to be a Starbucks partner can visit www.Starbucks.com to apply.

Qualified full- and part-time partners who work a minimum of 20 hours per week receive a benefits package that includes comprehensive health care, dental and vision benefits, 401K with matching and stock option grants through Bean Stock – the Starbucks company-wide stock option plan.

Partners also receive a free pound of coffee each week and complimentary beverages while working, as well as a discount on merchandise and other Starbucks items, Hand said.

€A Rite-Aid Pharmacy will open next to the Starbucks before the end of the year.

Construction broke ground at the end of April and now the actual building frame structure is being put together, according to spokeswoman Jody Cook.

The new Rite-Aid store is a relocation of the current store on Russellville Road.

Another store is also being built in Glasgow, which is set to open next year.

Cook said the new stores will be prototypes of a new concept the company is trying out that will feature aisles that are lower and wider, and private conference rooms for consultations between customers and pharmacists. Earlier, the company said the store will also feature an expanded merchandise selection, brighter lights and other new features based on customer feedback gathered through focus groups between September 2003 and April 2005.

Rite Aid is opening 125 new and relocated stores this fiscal year, with 800 to 1,000 new and relocated stores opened in the next five years, the company said previously.

€Samurai Sushi and Steak is open for business at 2718 Scottsville Road in Scottsville Square. The Japanese restaurant is the latest of six options for Bowling Green taste buds looking for that type of Asian food. The restaurant, which boasts a modern &#8220big city” style decor and expansive menu options, including dessert rolls, can be reached by phone at 782-5004.

€Also new to Scottsville Square is Hopscotch’s Playhouse, an indoor play facility for children up to age 6, according to owner Kimberly Green.

Green said the business is now enrolling for Spanish classes for children ages 3 to 6 and from 7 to 10.

Green is a pediatric speech pathologist who is fluent in Spanish. She previously worked at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

In the fall, Hopscotch’s will offer parent and child sign-language classes. For more, visit www.Hopscotchs.com.

€A new Chinese restaurant has opened in the Kroger shopping center on Campbell Lane. Great Wall will offer take-out and dine-in Chinese food from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and later on Friday and Saturdays. On Sundays, the restaurant will open at noon and close at 10 p.m., according to its menu.

The lunch buffet is priced at $5.65, according to its menu. The restaurant can be reached by phone at 393-9922 or by fax at 393-9839.

€Also on that block, the target date for the opening of the new DQ Grill & Chill on Nashville Road is July 14, according to Chris Feeley of Pierson Grant Public Relations.

Grand opening details have not been released yet, according to Feeley, but it is just in time for National Ice Cream day, which is July 15.

Dairy Queen’s location on Nashville Road strategically competes with the Cold Stone Creamery that opened in Buckhead Square last year, a competitive stance Dairy Queen isn’t shy about.

Dairy Queen said it recently entered the super premium ice cream company space occupied by Cold Stone and others with a roll out of a similar premium treat they say is lower in price at its 5,600 retail outlets.

Within the first month, DQ’s baked waffle bowls and cones saw the highest volume sales in the past 175 weeks and the highest per store sales in more than 3 1/2 years.

Waffle bowls have accounted for 10 percent of DQ’s soft serve sales and 6 percent of total sales, the company said.

DQ said it is backing the new treat with a $25 million ad campaign.

€The GFS Marketplace is expected to have a grand opening July 18, as stock is currently being put in at the location and management and other employees were recently trained in Louisville, according to company sources.

Construction of the Gordon Food GFS Market that will be adjacent to Home Depot on Gary Farms Boulevard was making progress at last check earlier this year.

The 10,000-square-foot market, which will offer discount pricing on volume sales to restaurants and food service operators, was slated to be open in early June but construction was delayed by rain, according to Sunbelt Construction project manager Brad Thorpe.

GFS markets target local food service businesses, including restaurants, caterers, country clubs, churches and day care centers, but it will be open to the general public and charges no membership fees, according to its Web site.

Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Gordon Food Service is the largest privately held food service distributor in North America, and was ranked 62 on Forbes Magazine’s list of the &#8220Largest Private Companies 2006.”

€Monticello Bank president Mike Davenport said the vault for the new bank branch was scheduled to be installed Friday and expects the project to be completed in the next 90 days.

&#8220Stewart and Richey is fast,” Davenport said

€The new Bowling Green Athletic Club on Scottsville Road is slated to have a preliminary opening in early July, according to general manager Adam Rider. The club takes up the space left by E.W. James Supermarket and before that, a Winn-Dixie grocery store.

&#8220We don’t have a definite opening date,” Rider said, adding that the club is still waiting on the delivery of equipment and other items.

€Graves Gilbert Clinic is upgrading its second floor at 201 Park St. with a $700,000, renovation by Scott, Murphy & Daniel LLC, according to a building permit.

Upcoming Developments:

Dairy Queen set to open July 14.

Gordon Food Service Marketplace,grand opening on July 18.

Bowling Green Athletic Club, preliminary opening on July 9th

Starbucks, coming this fall

Rite Aid, coming this fall

New Monticello Bank branch, expected in next 90 days.

Newcomers:

Samurai Sushi and Steak

Hopscotch’s Playhouse

Linzie’s Exceptional Sandwiches

Great Wall Chinese Restaurant