What do you get when you combine hot dogs and coffins? Dead Dogs, of course! The name may be a bit of a put-off but going by popular opinion, but these hot dogs prepared and sold from the inside of a black coffin are to die for.
Dead Dogs was founded in the most unusual of circumstances. The owner, La Barbera, a car collector and shopping center developer, had no intention of going into the food business. It was his love for cars that led him into setting up this bizarre hot dog shop. He happened to win a lowball bid for a Cadillac hearse at $12,000 last year. What he didn’t know and found out only after the car was delivered, was that it came with a huge coffin. For a while he had no idea what to do with it, but then the idea to adapt the hearse for the food-truck revolution hit him. “It was just another idea that popped into my head,” says the 64-year-old.
Photo: Dead Dogs/Facebook
La Barbera made use of his restoration skills and ripped out the cushioning inside the coffin. He then placed a propane-stove in it and thus created a hot dog steamer. His patented technology is able to make one frank in just 15 seconds, or 200 in 30 minutes. La Barbera’s partner is Frank Leamy, the owner of an Italian restaurant chain. Together they zeroed in on the famous Pink’s Hot Dogs of the Hoffy brand. The company is now called – ‘Dead Dogs, Ltd:Bite Me!’ While the concept is still very new and the market is being tested, people who happen to come across the Dead Dogs vehicle find it very interesting.
Photo: Dead Dogs/Facebook
Most people pull over when they see an unusual Cadillac hearse with flames painted on the side and an unloaded coffin on the side of the road. After spotting the hot dogs, they immediately decide to have one and the taste never disappoints. “Once the novelty gets over, and people laugh, I want the food quality to be tops,” insists La Barbera. The initial plan for the company is to start with four hearses, a few in San Jose and a few more in Hawaii. Long-term plans include independent franchises as well. Could it be that we are looking at the next big fast-food restaurant chain? Dead Dogs – hot from the coffin. Would you like to try one?
via Mercury News
