Tito’s Sloppy Dogs Owner and Operator Christopher Burress poses in front of his 1068 Market Street, downtown Wheeling location, with his daughter Kaylin, at left, and mother Annette.

WHEELING — Nearly 13 years ago Christopher Burress decided after years of working for others he would open his own restaurant business — Tito’s Sloppy Dogs.

Since then he has worked about 12 hours a day, six days a week to make sure the eatery has become successful with help from his family and employees. He now has three locations in Wheeling — the original Tito’s at 1068 Market Street, a second Tito’s inside the Upper Market House in the Centre Market and a third Tito’s vendor shop location inside of WesBanco Arena.

And during the next five years he hopes to open another 10 locations.

In recent years and months there have been times when business has been slow, but Tito’s has adapted.

“Lately it’s been a little slow. We’re good in the Market House because you have Coleman’s Fish Market and Valley Cheese there. … They are the anchors that bring everybody in. And I’ll take the stragglers. I’m small enough that I can take the stragglers from them,” he said, adding the Centre Market shop is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

“They’ll drive everybody down there. Usually it’s a husband wants fish and the wife doesn’t, or the wife wants fish and the husband doesn’t or the kids don’t want it. So we’ll get somebody. For us it works out perfectly,” he said. “Now my original location, 1068 Market Street, it’s good but it could be a lot better. A lot of people think we closed here and opened up down there. … Even through COVID, we were open.”

He noted the 1068 Market Street location, which serves breakfast starting at 8 a.m., closes at 3 p.m. because that’s when most downtown workers start leaving for the day.

“There’s not a whole heck of a lot right here to drive them down. If there were more businesses and they came to the parking garage that would drive more people down to this area,” Burress said.

He noted during the massive downtown road and sidewalk construction project, Tito’s had much business from the construction workers.

“Thank God for them. That was a catch-22, a double-edged sword. It was great we fed the construction workers. They were hungry, but you couldn’t get around town,” he said. “So it was terrible, but it was great, too. We just kept them happy.”

Burress said this winter’s frigid weather and large amounts of snow have been the most recent challenge for Tito’s.

“It’s still out there,” he said of the snow piles. “We got anywhere from 9-14 inches. It was bad. … But now it’s starting to warm up and it’s starting to wear off.”

Burress said what makes Tito’s special is the food’s flavor.

“I make my food the way I want to eat it and I hope that everyone else likes it,” he said. “And most of the time they do. I hate just basic. I like to be different so I like to be where it’s got flavor.”

Burress has loyal customers and he is loyal to them as well.

“I love money and I like my toys, but we care about the customers,” he said. “We’ll go out of our way for the customers. … I have a guy who has had a tab here for 10 years. Every month, he will charge his stuff and come back at the first of the month and pay it – for 10 years. So I take care of my customers. If you burn me, you burn me once and I won’t let it happen again. But most of the time, it doesn’t.”

Burress said in the future he hopes to see his daughter Kaylin take over the business so he can retire. She is currently studying business at Belmont College.

“I want to retire before I’m 65 and can’t retire. I want to enjoy my retirement. I’ll still work, but I want to take a week off and enjoy the beach. In 12 and a half years, I haven’t been able to do that,” he said.

Burress said he wanted to open Tito’s so he could make money for himself instead of working for others. A friend talked for years about opening a hot dog shop since Louie’s Hot Dogs closed downtown many years ago.

“I said, ‘Lyle, I’m stealing your idea.’ He said, ‘Go ahead, I’ll never do it,'” Burress said. “So two and half years later, I opened up with nine items on the menu. We have 59 now.”

His mother Annette and daughter Kaylin also work at the shops. Tito’s is named after Burress’ late father, Tito, who passed away 27 years ago.

Burress said some of his customers may not know the story behind his large map on Market Street that is titled “Tito’s Dysfunctional Family Around the World.” Dozens of push pins mark on the map where customers have traveled from to get there. He said one of his first customers said he was from Tennessee, but he did not have a Tennessee accent.

“He said, well I’m originally from Bulgaria. So we started with him about eight or nine years ago. And we’ve had someone from every single state, but also overseas, too.”

Burress encourages people to come check out Tito’s and its food.

“Come on in, we’re here. We’ll embrace you. … once you come in once or twice you are part of our dysfunctional family,” he quipped.