The #1 Hot Dog Cart "How To" Guide
HCDN reader Marc Freund is the owner of Dad’s Dogs in Ann Arbor, MI. He just got mentioned on food review site Urbanspoon.com.
Looks like folks are enjoying his hot dogs (and his personality – an important ingredient). That’s very cool!
Stories of successful HDCN hot doggers are coming out of the woodwork! Very exciting – I’m diggin’ it!
Check out Dad’s Dogs reviews at Urbanspoon.
UPDATE: ALL SOLD
Got an email from a man named José Luis Prado in Juarez, Mexico. He has 45 of these hot dog roller grills for sale. I don’t know anything about the man or these grills so do your due diligence. I have no financial interest in this deal whatsoever, I just thought it might be a good deal for the right person so I thought I’d pass it along. Here is the email
Good morning
I’m selling this equipment, I have 45 of these complete, consist of 3
components
Acrylic cover
Heat rollers
Bread warmer
The cost of this equipment is $ 575dlls more shipping
I accept serious offers to purchase.
If you want all these 45 the price is $ 18,000 DLLS free shipping…….
I am sending you pictures of the 45 equipments. Are ready for use
Any questions or comments I am at your orders
José Luis Prado
C. Jardín del Olimpo No. 7730
Col. Jardines Residencial
Cd. Juárez Chih. Mex. | 32618
Tel. (656) 623 9300 | Fax. (656) 558 2221
www.amk-equipos.com
HDCN reader Stephen Palumbo wrote to let me know that he is starting Hot Dogs by Gigi this spring. Here’s his announcement and some pics…
Hi All,
These are the first pictures of our new Hot Dog cart!
Hot Dogs by GIGI should be operational by early March and a test run is scheduled for a Saturday in February.
The website is still a work in progress.
Our business email address is HotDogsByGiGi@gmail.com and the phone number is (484) 641-7900.
Wish us luck.
Thanks!
From The Lost Article Series
Here’s an item from last summer that I recovered from my hard drive crash…
Steve,
Yesterday was my first day out with my Hot Dog Cart and I was amazed
at the turnout. Sold about 120 dogs and 50 polish.
My Mother In Law sent an E-mail to the local paper about my opening. They
called me for an interview and came out to take some pictures the day of the
health inspection
This article ran on the front page of the business section yesterday
morning.
Most of the customers that came out said they read the article and just had
to come out and show there support.
Just goes to show free publicity can pay with big rewards.
Just wanted to share this with the other doggers
Tim Creighton
TNT Dogs
Griffith, Indiana
The difference between a $30 million yacht and a $3 hot dog isn’t a big deal.
At least that’s what David Ross, former president of Burger Boat Co., hopes in his new career as a hot dog restaurant owner in Manitowoc.
Introducing Dr. Dawg.
It’s the latest venture for the entrepreneur widely credited for salvaging Burger Boat from bankruptcy and creating hundreds of jobs at the company’s Manitowoc shipyard.
Ross and business partner Jim Ruffolo bought Burger in 1993. They pumped new life into the business that was founded during the Civil War and had made custom yachts for some of America’s most famous families – names that include Ford, Rockefeller and Walgreen.
Ross left Burger in 2007. He was reluctant to discuss his departure, but others in the company said Ross left after disagreements with a Texas investor who infused tens of millions of dollars into Burger and became majority owner.
“He was very willing to take over the rest of the company and had a much stronger financial wherewithal than I did, which was something the yacht-building business needed,” Ross said.
“One thing led to another, and I decided it was time for me to move on.”
Ross went into the health insurance business, helping create an insurance plan which gave consumers more control over their health care dollars.
He is still involved in that business but now is more focused on hot dogs.
It started with a “dog wagon” vending cart last summer and has morphed into the Dr. Dawg restaurant.
The transition from Burger Yachts – where Ross mingled with Russian tycoons and sports stars – to the farmers market, where he pushed a dog wagon, might seem jarring.
“I think that initially a lot of people in our community, not to mention my friends and relatives, had a difficult time understanding the dramatic career change, literally from Burgers to dogs,” Ross said.
But it’s not so odd, given the 62-year-old entrepreneur has a history of starting businesses, including a tow-truck company and a commercial photo lab in downtown Chicago, where he and his wife, Katie, lived on the 55th floor of the Bloomingdale’s building.
A Chicago native, Ross is passionate about hot dogs sold on the city’s streets.
“I found that I became particularly aware of every nuance and detail that separated the good from the really great stands. I have my favorite places that I go to every time I visit Chicago. I will hit one, two or three of them depending on how long I stay.”
His test marketing in Manitowoc, and a course in hot dog business management, led Ross to create Dr. Dawg.
The dog wagon had developed a cult-like following, with regular customers called the “Dawg Squad.”
The restaurant, located at the Harbor Town shopping center, will sell Vienna pure beef hot dogs and Maxwell Street Polish sausages. Poppy-seed buns are from the parent company of Natural Ovens, based in Manitowoc.
The menu includes a variety of sausages, Mexican tamales and hand-cut french fries.
“It’s very Chicago. It’s what I grew up with,” Ross said.
If Dr. Dawg is a success, Ross said he will replicate it elsewhere in the Fox Valley or the Milwaukee area.
The Marine Corps veteran has a reputation in the business community for his insatiable appetite to try new things.
“I guess my entrepreneurial spirit got the best of me, and I decided that I am going for another one,” Ross said.
Some of that spirit comes from being a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with the disease in 2006.
“I view life with a different perspective,” Ross said. “Every day I get up and enjoy the day and enjoy the moment because life is so unbelievably short. It’s amazing how many people just don’t understand that until they have some kind of life-defining moment.”
original article at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal
Hey Everybody,
There’s a lot to be said for hard work. Keeping your nose to the grindstone. Knuckling down. Git ‘er done.
But there’s even more to be said for harnessing existing momentum. If you can get in front of a moving, swelling, powerful force it will take you where you want to go faster and easier than was previously possible. In the surfing world they call it “catching a wave”.
In our world, they call it “Street Food”.
It’s official. We’re trendy. We’re cool. We’re in demand..
We have arrived.
Check out this article sent to me by HDCN reader Ron DeRoest (thanks Ron!). Pretty inspirational stuff!
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Street Food Is the New Fast Food
In case you have not followed the street food movement, the bacon wrapped hot dog cart outside your local dive bar does not solely represent curbside cuisine any longer. In most of the major cities, we have seen a surge of gourmet, specialty, brand-bearing food trucks and carts parked near the trendiest metropolitan hotspots serving up items from fine french food to veggie burgers. Foodies and regular lunch time Janes are especially fond of the trend as new options for a quick, affordable and tasty lunch have emerged in a once vast sea of sameness embodied by franchised quick service outlets like Baja Fresh or Quizno’s.
So where did all these trucks and carts come from? Well, a good starting point is the recession. With incredibly low overhead (compared to a brick and mortar restaurant) and the ability to launch with little or no experience, a savvy food entrepreneur who can make a dish or two can hit the streets and try his luck serving lunch to eager and adventurous office people who heard about street food from the cool guy in human resources.
Given the low cost of doing business with the high potential for success and expansion, I make the argument that street food is the new fast food.
Here’s why:
1. It’s Fast. Given the nature of the ordering system, street food can be ordered, paid for and eaten in a relatively similar amount of time as fast food. The food trucks and carts require most chefs to prepare parts of the menu before you order, leaving less time for you to wait. The variable here is the line, but if you time it right by knowing your offerings and location before hand (shameless plug for Roaming Hunger here) you can be in and out faster than In and Out.
2. It’s Specialized. Fast food, although increasingly less so in the last decade, have specialized menus based on the chain. The big boys do one thing particularly well and are usually brand synonymous with that item, think McDonalds and Big Mac. Due to the nature of food trucks and carts with incredibly limited preparation space, most vendors are limited to serving one thing and serving it well. The Kogi Truck reached new heights of popularity by limiting itself to be known for one thing, Korean BBQ tacos. Essentially, the smorgasbord of street food has to be achieved through multiple vendors: which is why in Venice, CA, the First Fridays event looks like an Oakland Raiders tailgate party with sometimes over ten vendors parked up and down the street.
3. It’s Cheap. Street food is inexpensive relative to the quality of food served. Compared to fast food it may not be as cost effective per calorie, but if you compare total quality of food and preparation time to market, street food edges fast food out as the inexpensive option. With many people shying away from fast food after learning more and more about the sourcing of food (see Omnivore’s Dilemma, Chapter 7) many street food vendors are using sustainably, locally and responsibly sourced ingredients to service a conscious clientele.
4. It’s Fun. Fast food was fun too. I’ll never forget the delight of opening a Happy Meal at McDonald’s and then blasting down the plastic slide into the multi-colored ball pit when I was a kid. Street food carries a unique thrill of it’s own. First off, the preconceived notion of street food in the United States and who eats off ‘taco trucks’ is an exciting one to break. Eating off a truck or cart for the first time carries an air of adventure and risk. This excitement and fun is what propelled the Gaga-esque super spike into the 2009 trend list for street food. Unlike fast food however, I don’t foresee the joy of street eating to be as fleeting as growing up only to realize the toy and the slide is causing massive childhood obesity.
All in all, street food has positioned itself to be a viable eating option and not just a trend. With a quality product served at affordable prices, don’t be surprised if Taco Bell tried to get in on the action themselves. Oh wait, they already did.
original article at Huffington Post
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Are any of you getting the urge to become high end gourmet doggers, or do you just keep it simple?
What do you think? Lets hear you in the comments…
-Steve
I got an email from a woman named Rose asking me if I would list her hot dog business for sale. I said “Sure, glad to help”.
After I heard her story I was dying to share it with you, so I got her on the phone and recorded our conversation.
It turned out to be kind of a interview/advertisement. A hybrid if you will. Call it an “adverview”. Or maybe an “interadvert”? Whatever you call it, you’ll be inspired.
Even if you’re not looking to buy a business, you need to hear to this interview. Find out what can be accomplished with a hot dog cart and some hard work.
Click the link to listen online or right click to download the MP3 so you can listen on your iPod.
Hot Dog Cart Radio – Rose’s Hot Dog Cart Business
Rose’s contact info:
Phone: SOLD
Email: SOLD
I need to give the ‘ol disclaimer so here it is: I’m not an attorney or accountant, I’m not endorsing anything, and I’m not being paid. All claims made by the seller should be verified by the purchaser. Duh.
As usual, let’s hear from you. Comments make my world go ’round…
-Steve
Do You Have The Courage to Make More Money With Your Hot Dog Cart?
Price isn’t the only way to deliver value in your hot dog cart business. As a matter of fact it’s the very worst way.
It’s normal to be nervous during the start up phase, but it leaves you susceptible to self doubt. The temptation to lower your prices is very strong during this period because it makes you feel more confident.
You think it’s a competitive advantage, something you have control over. In reality this terrible strategy is based purely on your fear of failure.
Man up (you too ladies) and plan to charge a price that will return a decent profit.
Why you should charge more.
Let’s say you have been selling your dogs for $2.50. If you charge an extra fifty cents for your dogs here’s what happens:
If you sell 55 dogs a day, you’ll pocket an extra $5,321.25 per year (based on a 9 month selling season). That’s free money. A 16.5 percent raise which you didn’t have to work any harder to get.
That’s great, but check this out.
If you don’t charge that extra fifty cents, you would need to sell 16.5 percent more hot dogs (about nine) every day to make the same money, right?
Wrong.
You would need to sell 23.6 percent more. Thats TWELVE more hot dogs per day. How can that be?
When you charge that extra fifty cents, your costs have already been covered in your base price so you keep 100 percent of that extra fifty cents.
When you charge the base price, 30 percent of that price is eaten up by your costs. You only keep 70 percent of it. See the leverage you get by charging a premium price? It’s exponential.
Math is cool. Competing on price isn’t. You don’t have enough volume to make up the difference.
Don’t join in the race to bankruptcy just because you’re a little nervous at the moment.
Here are six better ways to deliver value:
1. Serve a kick ass product. Use top quality ingredients, super fresh condiments, ice cold drinks, and name brand chips. Watch those expiration dates – your customers do.
2. Be exclusive. Don’t try to compete with QT, Seven Eleven, and every other one-dollar-nasty-hot-dog-on-a-slimy-roller-grill-thingy operation out there. If all you offer is a green dried out no name dog with ketchup or mustard, you’ll get killed by the gas stations.
Do the regional dogs. Coneys. Mexicans. Slaw dogs. New York red onion sauce. One of your fellow readers Esteban Guzman (Stevie’s Red Hot Weenies) is killing it in Texas with his Chicago Style Dogs.
3. Be creative. The hottest trend in the country right now is “street food”, which usually refers to non traditional or gourmet offerings served from street carts. Jump on this trend by offering gourmet hot dogs. Try unusual toppings like avocado and sour cream, cilantro and tomato, crumbled bacon and chopped dates (try it – it’s good!).
Biker Jim’s Hot Dogs in Denver is becoming famous for his specialty sausages like Alaskan Reindeer Sausage, Elk Jalapeno Cheddar Brats, Southwest Buffalo, and Wild Boar Sausage. He even has a caulking gun loaded with cream cheese.
To see how creativity can get you a ton of attention, just google Biker Jim’s Hot Dogs. He owns the first 40 or so search results!
If your health department won’t allow you do do anything more than basic condiments, at least use a premium bun and “kettle” chips to brand your business as a premium operation. It works.
Better yet, get hooked up with a commissary so you can serve more creative options.
The exception is fairs and festivals where you have thousands of people just looking for a quick meal. There you can get away with a plain Jane product but still don’t sell it cheap.
4. Deliver an experience. Have some music playing (not too loud). Decorate your cart. Have a theme on certain days like “Hawaiian Fridays”. Run a little contest every now and then.
5. Be friendly. Don’t be the grumpy lady who sits in a lawn chair by her cart reading Lavyrle Spencer novels until someone rudely interrupts her to buy a hot dog. Chat up your customers. Most of them spend 50 hours a week in a cube farm under fluorescent lighting with no one to talk to. Be the highlight of their day.
6. Be findable. It’s a new decade. If you don’t have a website or Facebook page, make it a priority. In the old days you had to be in the same place every day so your regulars knew where to find you.
When people can find you online, it sets you free from being tied to one location because you can “post” your location each day. Your customers will get an automated email from you so they will always know where to find you.
It’s not unusual to have customers waiting when you pull up.
There you go. A half dozen ways to rise above the competition without cutting prices.
Have the courage to be the best. It pays.
What do you think about this concept? Any more ideas? Let’s hear you in the comments!
-Steve
I got word of this a little late – like 6 months. Sorry Chad! Better late than never, right?
Chad Ginther makes his cheesesteak with beef brisket.
Ginther says he’s always wanted to own his own restaurant and this is a step in the right direction.
He also sells pop and water, chips and danishes for the breakfast crowd. His cheesesteak is made of beef brisket, rather than roast beef. He also has concocted a condiment made of cabbage and mild peppers.
Hot dogs are $3; brats are $4 and cheesesteaks are $4.50.
He’s working on getting a permit to set up by Volume, 329 Second Ave. SE, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Chad and Mason Ginther show off their Bigg Daddy’s Dogs T-shirts.
Give it up for Chad people! Let’s hear you in the comments…
