January 30
...serving up your daily dish.
A little press can be a dangerous thing. Sure, we wrote about Amazing Hot Dog in Verona. Then, Eyewitness News' Lauren Glassberg followed the trail, sampling the shop's yummy Caped Crusader. The Star Ledger's Peter Genovese picked up the scent, chiming in with this review. The result -- customers came in droves forcing the store to close up early this past Saturday night. The owners apparently ran with their tails between their legs, rather than deal with an angry dog-loving mob who would arrive only to discover the doors locked and a sign explaining how the shop ran out of hot dogs.
How do you run out of hot dogs when your main product for sale is...hot dogs? Kind of reminds us of this story. Meanwhile, if all this hot dog talk has got you hot hungry, go on over today for lunch. Then, tell them how you came Saturday night. We bet you get a free dog.
January 30, 2006 in Food and Drink | Permalink
I went on Saturday, 3 pm (slow time to get a dog)...60 people in the place. Took 40 minutes to get two dogs. They need to let people put on their own mustard, relish and onions to get more efficient in their operation.
Posted by: buycopy | Jan 30, 2006 2:37:12 PM
Their dogs are fine, their service so far is truly pokey. I walked in at about 11:30 on a weekday morning, had to wait 5 minutes at a stool for the frank. By that time, the Rutt's countermen would have thrown 100 or more rippers at hungry patrons. So they have a ways to go, although I do wish them well (even if their condiments can never match Rutt's carrot relish).
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 2:50:09 PM
I still haven't tried this place yet...gotta get there since it's right in my backyard. I don't eat hot dogs that often, maybe at my once a year trek to Yankee Stadium, but I'm always open to a new place.
When I DO eat a hot dog at a barbecue, I always like them parboiled first (with the ends split) and then placed on the grill. Then it's topped with half mustard, half catsup. Yum.
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 3:08:02 PM
Interesting. Did the Baristas ever write about the 13 year old boy who was attacked at Lord & Taylor less than a month ago? The perp is a pedophile and Montclair resident. Wondering if anyone here wrote on this and cannot find a story on this site yet...
Posted by: mountie_4_life | Jan 30, 2006 3:15:06 PM
Thanks, ROC. I missed the whole thread. I'd been in Mountainside having my appendix out.
I will never set foot in there again.
Loved your comments on that thread, btw.
Thanks.
Posted by: mountie_4_life | Jan 30, 2006 3:37:25 PM
Well since this thread has blossomed into an open one, has anyone here ever read any of Max Barry's books?
Posted by: Miss Martta (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 3:54:47 PM
Sorry, Barista, but I don't think this is anything like the pizza place running out of pizza--AHD had a huge amount of press on Friday, and they were prepared for a ton of customers on Saturday. I don't think they could EVER have predicted that they would have sold over ONE THOUSAND hot dogs, though! It's a great problem to have, and it seems like the owners of AHD handled it beautifully (see their post today on the thread in the Food section, in fact!). The guys in the pizza place are a different story, and I think it's unfair to try to run parallels there.
Posted by: Ev | Jan 30, 2006 3:56:29 PM
My son and I went to Amazing Hot Dogs last Thursday before the
teeming throngs arrived. Much better than Rutt's, these hotdogs have a snap and are thicker.
Rutt's are too wrinkly. The guys are very nice, and I am glad they are so successful.
Posted by: albee | Jan 30, 2006 4:25:07 PM
No way, Crif Dogs on St. Mark's Place in the East Village trumps all. Awesome decor as well.
Posted by: ccc | Jan 30, 2006 5:52:22 PM
do they have veggie dogs? man i sure do miss hot dogs. that's all i miss though. mmm hot dogs.
Posted by: katie | Jan 30, 2006 5:52:52 PM
c'mon katie, dogs don't have meat...aren't they all by-products and fillers?
Posted by: The Iceman (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 6:05:45 PM
yeah but i don't even eat anything that once belong to an animal.
Posted by: katie | Jan 30, 2006 6:20:23 PM
Don't forget bacon. A nice BLT on whole wheat, iceburg lettuce, ripe tomato and slatherd with real mayo.
(that's what did me in after being a vegetarian for seven years - the humble BLT.)
Posted by: Right of Center™ | Jan 30, 2006 6:28:36 PM
I only like all-beef dogs, in other words, kosher.
Posted by: Miss Anthrope (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 6:32:18 PM
Katie, I was a vegetarian for 7 years. The first thing I ate when I broke my abstinence: a J.J.'s hot dog. MMMMMM!
Posted by: Dana | Jan 30, 2006 6:39:21 PM
Amazing Hot Dog is of course less than a block from where once stood one of the area's finest White Castles, where the majority of both the staff and the patrons on a Saturday night were likely to have priors.
White Castle, however, would never, ever have run out of burgers of a night (at an hour when Rutt's is just really getting interesting!). And if they had, its fans would probably have burned the place down. Now, people go home meekly and just wait a few days to post on Baristanet. Times really have changed, people.
Posted by: cathar (8T) | Jan 30, 2006 6:52:58 PM
Oh come on Ev, no parallel between a pizza place running out of pizza and a hot dog place running out of hot dogs?
Posted by: The Barista | Jan 30, 2006 7:13:42 PM
Oh come on Ev, no parallel between a pizza place running out of pizza and a hot dog place running out of hot dogs?
Posted by: The Barista | Jan 30, 2006 7:13:52 PM
I especially enjoyed this observation...
AHD had a huge amount of press on Friday, and they were prepared for a ton of customers on Saturday.
Actually, if they were prepared, they would have never run out of dogs. Reminds me of the Seinfeld car rental reservation episode...
Posted by: Liz | Jan 30, 2006 7:22:34 PM
Nothing's as bad as the time my church ran out of communion hosts on Easter Sunday.
Posted by: Theresa | Jan 30, 2006 7:48:32 PM
I dont know, I think you can be "prepared" and still run out. I mean, how were they supposed to know 1000 people would want hot dogs? Maybe they thought only 750 would want them. Or, maybe 900. Who knows - how COULD one know?
Snags happen...I seem to remember more than one occasion where there's been some technical difficulty or slow-story day at Baristanet.
Posted by: Butch | Jan 30, 2006 7:50:38 PM
