Top Dogs
We sampled the wares from three of the top hot dog spots in Cape May County. It’s a tough job, but someone had to do it.
HotDog Tommy’s, Cape May
Tom Snyder remembers his first hot dog. “I was taking trumpet lessons in Reading, Pennsylvania. I’d get up, get on the bus, and have just enough money for class and a hot dog at a little place called Thomas Restaurant. It was liberating.”
Today, Tom and his wife, Mary, own HotDog Tommy’s in Cape May, where they sell three to four tons of hot dogs a season at their walk-up joint at Jackson Street and Beach Avenue. During prime beach time, the line at HotDog Tommy’s stretches 40-deep, and an 800-dog day is not atypical.
Tom is the front man in the operation. He is also a one-man comedy act, doling out one-liners to customers, and getting into character by putting on his hot dog hat. “It’s really a chick magnet,” he explained. “A lot of young women just want to have their picture taken with me.”
Mary is HotDog Tommy’s chief cook and dog maker. She is also the one who suggested the business.
It was Cape May’s bed and breakfast boom, however, not its hot dog prospects, that drew the couple to town in 1984. They bought the former Manor House on Hughes Street, and later acquired Dry Dock on Texas Avenue. In 2000, they “retired” from management, bought a motor coach, and set off for South Dakota, where Tom worked as a tour guide and bartender, and Mary served as a cook and hostess.
“We lived in a herd of buffalo,” Tom said, a situation which occasionally made them late for work.
The couple also worked as food-cart vendors at the Magic Kingdom, and bar-and-restaurant staff at the Orange County National Golf Center in Orlando. “We discovered we liked taking orders,” Tom explained.
Chefs are divided about the best way to cook hot dogs. Mary steams hers, then grills them, using only all-beef for the “Bad Boy,” and beef-and-veal dogs for its smaller “Leaner Wiener.” House specialties include the Chop Suzy with Mary’s Saigon sauce and Asian noodles, the Jersey Slaw with yellow mustard and homemade cranberry coleslaw (Mary’s favorite), and the Tornado with mashed potatoes, chili, shredded cheddar, salsa, banana peppers and sour cream. There is also a Carrot Dog—a grilled carrot on a bun with choice of toppings.
“It looks just like a hot dog,” swears Tommy, a recovering vegetarian.
New to the menu this season is the Snoop It, a wrap version of any dog on the menu. It’s served in a flour tortilla and named after rapper Snoop Dog.
HotDog Tommy’s is open daily Memorial Day through Labor Day from 10:57am until 6:01pm, HotDog Tommy time, and some weekends in spring and fall.
“Bad, brown and bacon,” Tom called to Mary, who was poised at the grill opening day. That’s Hot Dog Tommy’s code for “Back Angus Dog (BAD), brown mustard and crumbled bacon.” It was the clarion call of summer.
Maui’s Dog House, North Wildwood
From the age of six, Mike D’Antuono worked every summer at his grandparents’ hot dog stand at the New York State Fair. “It was the happiest time of my life,” he said. Today, Mike and his wife, Liz, own Maui’s Dog House at 8th and New Jersey Avenue in North Wildwood.
Mike is “Maui,” a nickname he acquired while working at the Lobster Shack in Wildwood, after “chef-ing” at the Grand Wailea in Hawaii. He dreamed of opening his own shack, except his dream had hot dogs in it.
“I kept driving by an old ice cream stand that was neon-green and had six inches of sand on the floor,” he remembered. “One day, I came home and told Liz, ‘Remember that place on 8th and New Jersey? I just bought it.’” Maui’s Dog House opened in 1999.
The sit-down, takeout hot dog joint serves gourmet dogs and classic comfort foods at family-budget prices, earning it a loyal following and the respect of several foodies in the media. Maui’s business tripled in 2012, after the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives did a segment on the restaurant there. Last year, Maui’s served 140,000 customers.
“It really changed the game for us,” Maui admitted. “We had to figure out how to keep the quality up and meet the demand—it was daunting.”
Their answer was to buy a nearby 1,000-square-foot warehouse, and bring what they needed to the restaurant each day. With a weekly shopping list of 1,000 pounds of hot dogs, 250 pounds of beef, 250 pounds of chicken, and 3,500 pounds of Idaho potatoes (for seven types of fries), the extra space ensures no food ever has to be frozen.
Maui is chief chef at the Dog House, sharing the grill with Adam Famento, who started working there at age 14. Liz is hostess, cashier and crowd-control manager. With swells of customers up to 1,500 on weekdays and 2,100 on weekends, Maui emphatically recommends reservations for lunch and dinner.
Maui Mike is a traditionalist about hot dogs. He buys them from Hofmann’s, a Syracuse company started in 1850, where his grandparents bought their dogs. The old-world wieners are beef, pork and veal, handmade in strings.Maui insists they be grilled– not steamed, boiled or deep-fried–and buns should be cut from the top, not side.
Men and women are divided over toppings—Maui’s has 29. Women favor the Soprano, made with fresh baby spinach sautéed in garlic, olive oil and white wine with freshly grated extra-sharp provolone cheese. Men go for either the Drunk Horse, with beer-cooked sauerkraut and a house blend of horseradish mustard, or the Forget-About-It, with mustard, onions, chili, cheese and bacon. Maui’s serves all orders in its signature serving dish: a plastic dog bowl.
Off season, the D’Antuonos produce a cabernet wine in Napa Valley. It’s sold in two of Atlantic City’s top restaurants, and has also been served at the White House.
“I think my grandparents would be proud,” Maui said.
LouDogs, Sea Isle
LouDogs started as a one-cart operation off the 75th Street beach in Sea Isle 31 years ago. Today, it’s a hot dog shop a half-block off the 38th Street beach with counter seating, outside tables, and LouDogs’ original cart, which is now the storefront’s “kitchen.”
“We weren’t allowed to have an open flame in the shop, so we reconfigured the cart from propane to electric,” said Chris Subashi. “All I have to do is plug it in.”
Chris is the second generation of Subashis to run the family’s summer business. His father, Lou, was the original cart-bearer and dog-maker, and Chris, from the age of five, worked alongside him.
“‘Treat every customer like family,’ he’d tell me,” Chris recalled. “We don’t have a business if we don’t have customers.”
Many members of the “hot dog family” Lou created now seek out his son at LouDogs’ new location.
“I took my kids to your Dad’s cart all the time when we went to the beach,” said longtime customer Linda Kane, who stopped by Chris’ shop with her husband, Terry, on opening weekend. “I know good hot dogs.”
A middle-school teacher in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Lou Subashi started his concession business “to make a few extra bucks in summer,” Chris explained.
Lou was a World War II veteran, which, by state law, gave him a leg up when he applied for one of Sea Isle’s seven coveted vending permits. He got one, and, by cosmic design or luck, was awarded the location many considered the choicest spot on the strand: 75th Street beach.
Lou died in 2010, at age 69, and his vendor’s permit expired with him. Chris then had to make a decision: retire his dad’s hot dog cart or press it back into service.
“We had a 31-year name in town,” Chris said. “We were well known and the business was already established.” Un-garaging the cart, Chris, an elementary-school teacher in Philadelphia, re-opened LouDogs in 2012.
Like his father, Chris uses only Hatfield all-beef hot dogs and boils them. He has expanded the menu from the five toppings he and his Dad had on the cart, which space limited to mustard, relish, onions, kraut and ketchup. He now sells 14 specialty hot dogs and naked dogs customers can custom dress. Customers’ favorite is the 75th Street with barbeque sauce, real bacon crumbles and cheddar cheese. Chris’ go-to dog is plain so he can “taste the hotdog and bun.”
New this year is the Public Works. It was inspired by city workers, to whom Chris offers buy-one, get-one-free specials. It features sirloin beef, no-bean chili, macaroni and cheese, and cilantro Hank Sauce. “Ten to 15 trash guys come in on Tuesdays and order it,” Chris explained. “They wanted me to call it the ‘Dumpster Dog.”
Chris went way off the cart when he added a high-school-football staple to the line-up, the Walking Taco: Fritos corn chips, ground sirloin, cheddar cheese and homemade pico de gallo, served right in the Fritos bag. All selections are available daily in summer from 11am to 6pm.
Two closely held trade secrets have helped fuel LouDogs’ popularity and success. One is Chris’ mother’s recipe for sirloin no-bean chili, which she makes weekly. The second is the name of LouDogs’ bun supplier.
“Our buns are famous,” was all Chris had to say about it.
