The Perfect Hot Dog

Hi,

Today I noticed someone inquiring where to locate information on opening a Chicago hot dog stand. He wanted information on vendors, locations and related issues. He also inquired if anyone could offer advice whether to start fresh or purchase an existing hot dog stand. I knowing nothing about the operations of hot dog stand began to ruminate where I would begin to research such a business.

First off, I suggest working in a hot dog stand for a season. Learn what they do right and what needs improving. On your free time, develop your hot dog palate by visiting as many stands as possible. Chat up the staff to learn as much as possible. Take your new found information as a basis to learn more from the next stand. Discern between those who revere their hot dog from those whose sale of a hot dog is a means to an end. The enthusiasts who aspire to better are your crowd to learn from.

Research internet food sites where hot dogs are debated. Just from my experience, there is a recognition of a preference for natural casing hot dogs having a pleasant snap when you bite into it. The choice of how many hot dogs per pound may be dictated by price points in your region. However, a too skinny hot dog is unpleasantly cheap by all standards; especially when they are skinless!

Apprise yourself on the various methods of preparing a hot dog: grilling, steaming or the gentle art of simmering. A hot dog simmered too long is a tasteless protein substance whose flavor long ago seeped into the liquid. Learn to carefully pace your hot dog cooking to allow enough for any customer to come any time for a fresh tasting hot dog. A niche hot dog business not properly exploited in Chicago is a freshly made corn dog. All I can advise is drive ye to Cozy Dog in Springfield to learn as much as possible. Drive on to Texas where Corn Dogs were first invented in the 1940's. Outside of county fair vendors, there are no known locations in the Chicago area for a fresh corn dog. Don't delude yourself frozen is just is as good. Frozen no good, no good I tell ya!

Learn to appreciate your hot dog's condiments. Buy all the yellow mustards, pickle relishes (neon green as well as natural), ketchup, sport peppers, pickles, celery salts, ect. Do side by side comparative tastings to nuance the best taste, then test it on a hot dog. Don't forget your onions, try different varieties prepped in different ways: diced, slivered, grated, lightly fried or cooked to a mushy consistency. It may be the same onion but how it is prepared it will take on different characteristics of mouth feel and flavor. Invite your friends and family to test with you as you want the taste to appeal to them as well as to you.

The bun of a hot dog is quite an intimate question. It is not merely bread, it is the life raft which keeps everything together. Do you want classic white airy bread bun or one made with potato? Poppy or sesame seeds: oh, to seed or not to seed, that is the question! Should the hot dog fit within the bun or should the bun show a suggestive bit of hot dog? To accomplish this, do you have a slightly undersized bun or a slightly oversized dog? These are dollar and cents questions!

Once you have made your evaluations on the hot dog, condiments and buns, then you are prepared to meet your potential vendors. You will be sorely tempted by cost alone to buy a full line from one vendor, i.e. hot dog, buns, condiments with printed paper napkins thrown in to sweeten the deal. However, your hot dog will taste like everyone else's who bought the same package deal. Instead, you will either oblige your full line vendor to march to your needs or negotiate separate purchase agreements with a number of "approved" vendors. Who did the approval? You and your research. Your eye on the prize is making the best hot dog eating experience for you and your customers.

I could go on and on, though I hope to hear another voice on the perfect hot dog.

I've scrubbed my pushcart clean, folded the umbrella and rolled it into the garage. I bid you all adieu.

Regards,
Cathy2

Cathy2 wrote:Today I noticed someone inquiring where to locate information on opening a Chicago hot dog stand. He wanted information on vendors, locations and related issues. He also inquired if anyone could offer advice whether to start fresh or purchase an existing hot dog stand. I knowing nothing about the operations of hot dog stand began to ruminate where I would begin to research such a business.

Vienna Beef supplies about 80 percent of the independent dog stands in town and seems to have systems for educating new owners.

Cathy 2 has admirably covered the food end of a hot dog stand.

Let me offer a few comments on the business end. (In a previous incarnation I was a CPA. While I never had a hot dog stand as a client I did talk to colleagues who did.)

Buy an existing stand or start from scratch? I'd vote for buy. It may not cost any more than starting from scratch and it should be lower risk. You're getting something with a track record (though figuring out the record isn't easy -- more on that in a minute).

This is a competitive business and there are a lot of stands out there. Location is important. Keep your market in mind. Are you going for lunch business from office workers, factory workers, evening family business or several of the above? All this affects hours, staffing, etc.

If you do buy, be aware that this is a cash business which is notorious for hiding income. You can look at the financial statements, but don't take them too seriously. The operating expenses may be realistic, but check them anyway as best you can.

The real question is what are the revenues? Don't waste your time with financial statements or even tax returns. Instead ask the seller for the names of ALL his vendors. Then go to the vendors and ask for a bun count -- how many buns did the stand buy in the most recent year?

If you know the bun count, then you know how many sandwiches were sold. With a copy of the menu you can make an estimate of $sales.

By the way, the reason I said to ask for the names of all vendors is that some stands will buy from several, paying one by check and the rest with cash from the till. Makes it easier to hide income.

Congratulations. If you made it this far you are now ready for Real-World Accounting 101!

Prontopup (Corn Dog)

Months ago, I mused out loud about origins of the Corn Dog and the conflicting historical information all centered around the early 1940's. Just this evening, I found the owner of Prontopup replying to my old post, which I will quote under my signature line.

Dave, September 24, 2004 wrote:The first Pronto Pup was sold in 1941 in Portland, Oregon at the Pacific Exposition. I have newspaper articles, letters and photos of the stand.
The Pronto Pup is the original corn dog! Everything I've seen regarding corn dog history goes back to maybe 1942. No Corn dog except Pronto Pup goes back before 1942. I think that several people saw that stand in Portland and ran home and developed their own "hot dog on a stick" mix for fairs in Texas, etc.
My dad bought the Pronto Pup Co. in 1950 from the creator, George Boyington of Portland, Oregon.

The beauty of the internet, if you wait long enough, someone will eventually answer your question!

Regards,
Cathy2

CozyDog

Cathy2, April 16, 2004 wrote:The foolproof way to find Cozy Dog when passing through Springfield is to follow Business Route 55, which is also the old Route 66 route before I-55. Thus I was able to recently impress my family with an impromptu visit for their freshly made Cozy Dog a.k.a. corn dog.

As we approached Cozy Dog, I did not have a déjà vu moment. It was more like I don't recall this place but the sign says it is Cozy Dog. Like everything else in our urban landscape, the old Cozy dog structure was torn down to make room for a Walgreens. Cozy Dog built a large somewhat featureless building next door. In the older, smaller location, upfront was the staging area for the fresh dip and fry of your Cozy Dog. The new arrangement does not give you the same intimate feel with your Cozy Dog's production. In fact, I don't recall seeing any staging area, just a kitchen in the rear. We placed our order and walked around until our food was delivered to our table. The new building just doesn't have the roadside rustic feel of the original, though they worked very hard to decorate the interior with Cozy Dog and Rt 66 relics and souvenirs

As startled as I was by the new structure, I did enjoy my Cozy Dog. The hot dog was nicely encased in cornbread-type coating and crisply fried. I plopped some mustard on a plate to dip my dog between bites. I was somewhat amused my younger niece took one bite, declared the hot dog spicey and never had another bite. Spicey is certainly in the eye of the beholder.

Shortly after our Cozy Dog experience, I unintentionally ordered a Corn Dog at a Sonic Drive-In in Mississippi. The Sonic corn dog was factory-made, frozen and dropped into a fryer. Compared to the gold standard Cozy Dog, the Sonic corn dog had a cornmeal crust which was much thicker than the Cozy Dog. The Sonic corn dog was cooked through but probably due to the thickness of the dough, it had a mushy texture suggesting it was undercooked with an exterior crust not as crisp as the Cozy Dog.

Dreamin' of my next visit to Cozy Dog on Rt 66.

George R wrote:go to the vendors and ask for a bun count -- how many buns did the stand buy in the most recent year?

If you know the bun count, then you know how many sandwiches were sold. With a copy of the menu you can make an estimate of $sales.

Bun count is good in theory, but you can buy buns at Costco, thank you very much.

You might look at the historic fountain delivery receipts. Pre-mix cannisters are hard to bury. Used to be, in the days of post-mix (you dumped water and syrup in the canisters yourself) that you could hide even soda sales because you could find sources to buy the syrup for cash. No more, since no one offers post mix anymore, even though its per-serving cost is far lower.

You could then deduce gross sales volume based on an assumed soda sales rate per sale. This would be pretty close to accurate, say plus/minus 15%.

Really good operators, however, are as smart and as canny as the best in any other industry or profession--whether its law or finance or real estate.

Every business files periodic sales tax reports with the state department of revenue. These are the only records you can take to the bank. All else is smoke, to be disregarded for valuation.

The canny operators know this, and know too that if they stuff their pockets weekly using the NINO theory of accounting ('Never In Never Out') that they will take a concomitant hit when they go to sell the business.

Cathy2's counsel to work in a stand for a year is sterling, in fact work in two or three places. Everyone on both sides of the counter will be your teacher.

As a long-time dog hut patron, let me beg you to think beyond the hot dogs:

Fries are paramount. Do them right. There are two extremes to the scale, either fresh with skin on, or McD's-style shoestrings. Don't even think about anything in the middle, they're a distraction that won't bring in customers (curly fries, seasoned fries, potato wedges, tater tots... well maybe tater tots)

Some Chicago-area shops go for minimalist perfection: Just dogs and fries, with perhaps one or two other items, e.g. Gene & Jude's have tamales, Demon Dogs has Polish and a couple other sandwiches. Those two examples also skimp on condiments (no pickles!), which I find strange.

If you go beyond hot dogs and their near kin the Polish, will you want a griddle (burgers, grilled onions, grilled sandwiches) or a grill (sausages, burgers). Italian Beef is almost required at Chicago-area shops, and only needs the same steam table as the dogs. As long as you're deep frying, do you want to do fish or chicken? Do you have room for a Gyros spit?
As Cathy2 said, visit your competition, and figure out what you want to serve. I think that people who want a chicken caesar salad should be looking elsewhere, but hey, if it gets them to bring their kids in, perhaps it's worthwhile.

And if you've got room for one more machine, I'd vote for milkshakes. Hand-dipped and blended is probably asking for too much, but even a spigot-type thick sweet shake is a good foil for the onions, salt and spicy sandwiches (even if they're another heart-clogging item). Going back to Gene and Jude's, we were disappointed the last time we were there that the adjacent Cock Robin is gone -- it was the shake source. Mrs. F thought about the McD's on the other side, then thought better of it.

Best of luck,
Joel

Steve Drucker wrote:

Every business files periodic sales tax reports with the state department of revenue. These are the only records you can take to the bank. All else is smoke, to be disregarded for valuation

Sorry, but I beg to differ. Sales tax is something a lot of cash businesses play games with. If you're going to cheat on income tax, you may as well cheat on sales tax too. Also, the Feds and the States share a lot of info. It's risky to tell them different stories.

The State puts a lot of effort into monitoring cash businesses, to the point of having agents go in under cover and count activity.

I've heard stories [probably apocryphal] about how some restaurant operators manage to get around even that, but that's for another day.

I wonder about the accuracy of the corn dog's age.

My mother, who would be in her late 80's now, remembered them in southern California in the 30's.

She wasn't much for chow, but she always went out of her way for a good corn dog. And just like Cathy, fresh, never frozen.

George R wrote:Sorry, but I beg to differ.

I have sent you a personal msg.