Bowie's Family Restaurant owner Robert Middleton on Friday received the first Downtown New Business Grant offered by Lansford Alive!

The community improvement organization plans to present the grants, the amounts of which vary, to new businesses opening in the downtown Ridge Street business district.Lansford Alive!'s board of directors see the grants, which can be used to offset startup costs or for advertising, as a way to attract more businesses to the borough, and specifically to the downtown.Bowie's Family Restaurant, which opened July 11, is in the space formerly occupied by the Lansford Family Restaurant in the Panther Valley Mini-Mall at 28 W. Ridge St.Middleton is a familiar name to those who love good food. He was formerly the chef at Top Of the 80s in Hazleton, and at the former Costello's Restaurant in Coaldale.His signature dishes juicy cheese steaks and tender, plump, hot wings are the stuff of legend in the area.Bowie's Family Restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, and from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays.The menu features reasonably-priced favorites including an array of hot wings: barbecue, hot honey, hot barbecue, and honey mustard; Belgian waffles; loaded potato chips with tomato, scallions, bacon and cheese; homemade french fries; charbroiled burgers; homemade crab cakes; shrimp Alfredo and a variety of desserts.Bowie's is among several new businesses that have opened in downtown Lansford in recent years. Others include Silver's Oreck, Ameriprise Financial, and Holistic Therapeutic Outreach Services.