He’s not teaching them new tricks, but Mark Raphaelson is giving dogs special treatment.
Hot dogs, that is.
He recently opened a franchise of Johnnie’s Dog House on the Concord Pike, which serves 14 types of dressed up hot dogs, including his own Delaware Dog, a mouthful unique to the First State.
Raphaelson, 47, of West Chester, Pa., collected more than 700 hot dog topping suggestions from customers and used them to create The Delaware Dog, his frankfurter masterpiece.
The most popular suggested topping was blue cheese, to represent the University of Delaware Blue Hens, but that ingredient did not make the cut for the final recipe, he said.
“I wasn’t going to sit in the back and smell blue cheese all day, so that was out,” he said.
Instead, the Delaware Dog starts with two grilled hot dogs, to represent the twin span of the Delaware Memorial Bridge, topped with macaroni and cheese, fried onions, chili and hot sauce, he said.
He added the chili and macaroni on an employees’ suggestion, the fried onions because they are a popular topping in the area and the hot sauce for the heck of it, he said.
While it may not be indicative of Delaware, the dog is definitely unique, flavorful and filling, he said.
A Delaware Dog makes sense on the restaurant’s menu, Raphaelson said, which also features regional hot dogs like the Michigan Chili Dog and Texas Tommy.
The Texas Tommy -- a hot dog wrapped in bacon, deep fried and topped with cheese -- is one of the restaurant’s best sellers.
“We call it a heart attack on a bun,” he said.
While the Texas Tommy is one of the most popular, Raphaelson said all of his hot dogs are selling like hot cakes.
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Johnnie's Dog House 3401 Concord Pike 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday |
People are looking for inexpensive meals in the tough economy, he said, and his hot dogs creations, made with the best, authentic ingredients from across the country, foot the bill. A customer can get a dog stacked high with chili for less than $3 at Johnnie’s.
But good hot dogs hold more than just mountains of chili: they hold memories, he said.
“Everybody has a story about hot dogs,” Raphaelson said.
Smelling the rich, spicy aroma of hot dogs sizzling on the grill at a tiny, street side cart is an American experience that hearkens back to simpler times, he said.
During a typical lunchtime, the parking lot holds an even ratio of BMWs, rusted clunkers and pickup trucks whose occupants all dig into hot dogs despite their race, creed or socioeconomic status, he said.
Raphaelson expects that mass appeal to keep his customers coming, especially because hot dogs are a niche market in an area saturated with hamburger restaurants.
“We’re not in the hamburger wars. No one specializes in hot dogs,” and nothing can cover up the simple pleasure found in one of America's favorite meals, he said.
