Toby was recently written up in his hometown newspaper and I thought you’d like to read about the latest in a long line of Hot Dog Cart News readers who have found success under a hot dog cart umbrella.

Enjoy!

Dogs on the Square
Former Maytag worker opens downtown lunch cart

By JOHN R. PULLIAM
The Register-Mail

GALESBURG —

Not everyone finds hot dogs to be their breakfast food of choice. But this past week, Ray Babcock of Galesburg took advantage of a new business, Toby’s Hot Dogs, to start off his day with one of America’s favorite, low-cost taste treats.

“I’ve seen him here for a couple of days,” Babcock said of Toby Brady’s push-cart operation at about 10 a.m. Wednesday.

“I’m originally from Chicago. I’m used to seeing this. There’s something about hot dogs.”

“What’s it going to be today?” Brady asked Babcock.

“A hot dog and a brat,” Babcock said.

Brady opened Sept. 1 in the area of the Public Square. Hot dogs for $2 and brats for $2.50 pretty much complete the menu for now. He hopes to add an authentic “Chicago-style” hot dog soon and he does have chips and soda pop.

“Oddly enough, I have one or two people from Chicago that stop here every day,” Brady said. “I’m here to serve the public. Whatever the public likes, I’m going to try to serve them.”

Brady is a classic entrepreneur. As is the case with many people in this area, he was somewhat shoved into entrepreneurship when Maytag left town in 2004.

“I worked at Maytag for 12 years. From there, I went to Western (Illinois University) and got a bachelor’s degree. That bachelor’s degree somehow landed me here,” Brady chuckled.

What landed Babcock at the hot dog stand was a yearning for yesteryear.

“What attracted me is the whole nostalgia thing,” Babcock said. “I love classic cars, anything old. My dad kind of talked about how great things were in the ’50s and this sort of seemed like it.”

Babcock used a squeeze bottle to put a dollop of brown mustard on his “dog.” He also had yellow mustard and ketchup to choose from.

“I know a lot of people say ketchup doesn’t belong on hot dogs, but a lot of people around here use it,” Brady said, sounding almost apologetic. “I haven’t had anybody bashing the ketchup. Galesburg has it’s own unique tastes. I’ve had a lot of people use the ketchup.”

In Chicago, the unwritten law is no ketchup on a hot dog. Perhaps downstaters are more laid-back, preferring not to set up too many rules when it comes to how one should eat one’s food.

Asked how the brat was, Babcock said, “It’s good, I love brats.” He was even more enthusiastic about the hot dog.

“Good hot dog,” Babcock said. “Good hot dogs have to have a snap to them. Thanks for breakfast, I’ll probably be back for lunch.”

Brady said the food was from Thrushwood Farms Quality Meats Inc., including the Johnsonville brats.

Brady seems to have the knack for this type of job; he seems to truly enjoy talking with his customers and has a good sense of humor.

Brady earned a Board of Governor’s degree from WIU. He minored in manufacturing engineering, hoping something similar to Maytag would return to town by the time he finished his education. But he is by no means unhappy with the way things worked out.

“I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit in me,” Brady said. “I tried selling gold-plated chains at Railroad Days one year. I had a used-records store downtown in the ’90s.”

His father also ran his own business.

“As far as the food service goes, I worked at Alfano’s off and on through the years when Maytag was slow,” he said.

Brady was asked how long he plans to keep the push cart open once the autumn temperatures begin to drop.

“As long as it’s not too cold for you to stop and get a hot dog, I plan to be out there,” he said.

What if it rains?

“I haven’t had that occasion come up yet,” Brady said. “I just haven’t crossed that bridge yet. I don’t know what the boys in Chicago do.”

Brady has a great location — lots of traffic going around the square, with a convenient place for them to pull over and order a hot dog or a bratwurst.

“I have a lot of people pull up like it’s a drive-through,” he said. “So far, I’m happy with the response. I haven’t had a million stopping by, but I’ve had new people every day.”

With the success of events like Cafe in the Park, Brady said, “I’m really surprised nobody has tried this in Galesburg before. Hopefully we won’t have 50 carts next year.”

Chris Banning and Roy Sanchez, both of Galesburg, were taking a break when they pulled up.

“We just saw something new,” Banning said. “We had to try it. Anything new in Galesburg, you’ve got to try it out.”

Sanchez, who just moved to Galesburg from suburban Chicago, wasn’t hungry enough for an early morning hot dog, despite Banning’s offer to buy, but Banning also gave Brady’s product rave reviews.

“I’m not the biggest connoisseur of hot dogs, but that’s a pretty good hot dog,” he said.

Toby’s Hot Dogs is open from about 10 or 10:30 a.m. to about 2:30 or 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. He plans to stay in the area of the square.

“If you want to buy a hot dog, I don’t want you to have to drive all over town looking for me,” he laughed.

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Let’s hear it for Toby in the comments everyone!!!

Sales Price $35,000.

Contact Ed Spooner, Corporate Consultants, Inc. (727) 409-5460.

Or you could start your own for 1/35th that amount or less… Hot Dog Biz 101

I just read a blog this morning which compared the hot dog culture of Chicago to that of Toronto.  Apparently Canadians are more subdued about their love of the tubesteak than those in the Windy City, even though Toronto may have more hot dog carts per capita.  I guess it’s just a function of the personalities of their inhabitants.  Being from Chicago, I can tell you that we aren’t very subdued about anything.  Especially the ketchup thing…

In case you haven’t heard, no one in Chicago is allowed to put ketchup on a hot dog unless they are under 12 years old.  This is actually an enforceable ordinance passed in 1975 by “Hizzoner, Da Mare”  Richard J. Daley, who once said, “The policeman isn’t there to create disorder; the policeman is there to preserve disorder.”  (I pause to wipe a homesick tear from my eye.)

Apparently it’s OK to put ketchup on a hot dog in Toronto…

Liberals.

- Steve

P.S.  Allright…I have an occasional ketchup dog every now and then.  So what?!!!  I don’t have a problem – I could stop whenever I want.  Really.

Original story at Well Preserved

If anyone is interested email Gary at jmoos1@tampabay.rr.com

- Steve

“Before long he was doing a brisk business providing lunch to the many people who worked at garages, factories and warehouses along Broadway and nearby Northern Boulevard. And on weekends, before we drove off to visit one relative or another, my father would pull his car up behind Frank’s cart and each of us–my mother, brother and me–would get a dog and a soda. I don’t remember exactly how much it cost, but in those days it was our idea of dining out.”

John goes on to describe in detail something each of us knows well.  We all have extremely strong opinions on what constitutes the perfect hot dog.  Myself, being from Chicago, it’s not a hot dog until you drag it through the salad – and don’t forget the sport peppers and celery salt!  John grew up on the red onion sauce invented by Alan Geisler and says, “a dog without Mr. Geisler’s sauce is like bacon without eggs, ham without cheese, water without scotch whiskey. It does nothing for me.”

Water without scotch whiskey…ha!  Love it!  Reminds me of what W.C. Fields used to say about why he never drank water.  “Fish ____ in it”.  But I digress…

John continues.  “After a few years Frank was doing so well that during winter months he suspended business and, with his loyal canine friend, vacationed in Florida. But his return each spring was as welcome as the warm weather, green leaves on trees and baseball.”

Who else wants a business where you can make a year’s worth of money and still take the winter off?  If this sounds good to you, I can show you how to get started with hot dog carts.

Glass of water anyone?

- Steve

- Steve

“Dear Steve, How can I be sure that I will be successful if I buy your stuff?  I’m afraid to take the first step.”

Sigh… Today I sat down and drafted a manifesto of sorts that I will use in all future replies.

Here it is:

Fear of the Unknown is Normal.
You are scared because you are going to attempt something that you’ve never done before.  You need to change the way you are thinking about this.  The enemy is in your head and I’m going to tell you how to beat him.  Pay attention.

Attitude is Everything.
You are approaching this with a “black and white” attitude and you think that you will either be a total success or that you will be a total failure.  Black and white thinking is just not logical.  When you start out, you will have small successes.  You will also have small failures.  A little of each every day.

For a while you may have more failures than successes.  That’s a good thing as long as you are smart and use them as learning opportunities.  After you screw something up, you should be really happy because now you know how NOT to do it.  I’m serious.  Welcome each failure, but fail fast, fix it, and keep moving forward.

You Already Know How to Learn.
When you were a baby you fell down whenever you tried to walk, and sometimes you went to the bathroom in your pants.  Falling down hurts a lot, the other thing not so much but it’s still unpleasant.  However, you knew that it was possible to walk and use the toilet because you saw others doing it.

I’m confident that you learned from these “failures” and that you haven’t repeated them in a long, long time.  This is proof positive that you are teachable.  That you CAN succeed.

You know that it’s possible to make a living selling hot dogs because you’ve seen others doing it, and they are no smarter than you.  They just went out and did it.  The cart manufacturers sell thousands upon thousands of new carts every year.  How could they do this year after year if there was no money in this business?  Word would have gotten out by now and the hot dog cart factories would have been forced to shut their doors.  Not so.

A Word to the Green Light People
There are some folks who won’t try anything new unless they feel that success is guaranteed.  The thought of failure paralyzes them in their tracks and they must have everything exactly right or they won’t even start.  We all know people like this.  They have been talking about the incredible business they are going to start someday for years.  But they never get it going because they are not sure about this one thing, or such and such isn’t exactly right.  I call these “green light people”.  Here’s why.

Imagine that you need to drive down a city street.  You can see 10 blocks ahead and each intersection has a traffic signal.  Green light people won’t put their foot on the gas until all 10 lights are green.  How often do you drive somewhere and get ALL green lights?  Not often.  When you come to a red light, you know that it will eventually turn green.  If it doesn’t, you simply turn right or left, find a different route, and reach your destination.

That’s how it is in business.  You can’t wait until all the lights are green because it just never happens.  You’ll eventually run out of gas while going nowhere.  The true key to success, the most important thing of all – is to ACT.

A  J.O.B  is Not Security – It’s Just Over Broke.
If you want to be “secure” (there’s really no such thing when you work for someone else), just do today what you did yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that.  You can then be certain that you’ll get what you got yesterday, and the day before, and the day before.

That is until your boss (or his boss) gets a wild hair up his ass one fine Monday morning and decides you aren’t necessary anymore.  Then you won’t even get what you got yesterday, which in most cases sucked anyway.

This isn’t Rocket Surgery.
Just ACT.  Take a small step toward your goal every day, observe the effects of your action, adjust for better results, and repeat.  Get my book or get the other guy’s book, just get somebody’s damn book and get started.  By the way, you’ll be much happier if you choose mine.    Then…

One day not too long from now, you will wake up and realize that you have five carts out there all making money every day, and no one can ever fire you.  That’s true security.

Was getting there really easy?  No, not really.  Was it super hard?  No, not really.

Screw the red lights.

- Steve

P.S. Please, please share this on your Facebook by clicking the blue “Share” button. People need to hear this.

Listen up – here’s a tip worth thousands of dollars a year:  Vegetarians and vegans are passionate about their lifestyle and passionate customers are an absolute goldmine.  You will NEVER see more loyalty than when you tap into serving a passionate market such as this.  You must first determine if there is a market for veggie dogs in your community.  Just buy a few, advertise them prominently on your cart and see if they sell.  Odds are you’ll have a major hit, especially in this increasingly health concious society.

The increase in customers and word of mouth (the most powerful advertising of all) will increase sales of your traditional all beef weenies as well. A synergistic effect, if you will.  Just be sure to cook the veggie dogs in a separate steamer.  Vegans won’t touch them if they have touched real meat of any kind.

All right boys and girls, get out there and test your market.  Start slinging some V-dogs!

- Steve

Anyways, go check out Bob’s used hot dog cart.  It looks great and the price is rock bottom.  A really good way to get started cheap.

- Steve

-Steve

original article at Eating LA