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There are very few things more American than a hot dog. Or at least that’s the way Chris Zacharias sees it.
On a recent Friday afternoon, he stood in front of his metal hot dog cart, shaded by a red and yellow umbrella, doing what he does best — selling hot dogs.
“You guys are looking hungry,” Zacharias says to two men walking by. “Come on and get some dogs.”
But M-Dawg, his hot dog stand, isn’t the only one in town. In Northwest Indiana, there has been a swelling of hot dog carts, including six within 10 miles of each other.
For three months, M-Dawg had been positioned in front of Menards in Merrillville. He recently relocated inside of Lowe’s on U.S. 30.
He understands snagging customers requires more than putting a hot dog in a bun with mustard, tomatoes, relish, onions, a sport pepper and a pickle.
Even with dozens of restaurants nearby, Zacharias, a Gary native, said he knows people are clamoring for a high quality hot dog.
“With us being a suburb of Chicago, people are familiar with the Chicago-style hot dog, so we sell them hot and fresh for the people here,” he said. “I don’t sell anything here that I wouldn’t eat myself.”
The Chicago-style Vienna beef hot dog, his top seller, is $3.50 and he offers a combination meal with a bag of chips and a soda for $5. He also offers a Polish topped with coleslaw and homemade chili for $5.
Nothing new
Zacharias said he hustled hot dogs for four years when he moved to Chicago at age 17.
“If you kept your mouth closed, you didn’t sell hot dogs,” he said.
Zacharias, who works in the construction business, said he noticed that Menards didn’t have a hot dog stand and thought it would be a prime location.
On his first day, he said, he sold out of 100 hot dogs in four hours.
“I was astonished by our success,” he said. “I actually took a step away from the construction business to concentrate on selling hot dogs.”
Now, he’s looking to open another hot dog stand in Northwest Indiana, he said.
A regional trend
This summer, several stands popped up in the area, including that of Paris Harris, owner of Cut Time barbershop, who opened one in the parking lot of Gary’s flea market on the 42nd block of Cleveland Street.
“There was nothing like that around here,” Harris said. “I used to go to Chicago all the time and get Polishes. … It was something that we didn’t have in this area so I figured we should.”
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But the veteran hot dog seller in Northwest Indiana is Mike Adams, who opened his first stand in 2009. Adams, who is also known as “the hot dog guy” now has four hot dog carts, including one on the southeast corner on Crown Point square.
“Pretty soon, there are going to be hot dogs everywhere you go around here,” Zacharias said.
Twitter @JavonteA