Kathryn Rem SJ-R: Hot dogs, hotter business
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
This winter, when the temperatures plummet to single digits, the streets are crusted with ice and blustery winds chase most people indoors, Eric Quinnell will be selling hot dogs from his portable cart on the sidewalk at Fifth and Monroe streets.
“Last winter I only missed two weekends, when it got below zero,” said the 32-year-old former bar bouncer, landscaper and restaurant cook. “The mustard and ketchup pumps weren’t pumping too well and customers had to chisel the onions out of the dish, but I was here all winter.”
Quinnell, known to downtown workers as “the hot dog and brat guy,” has been selling his street-side fare under a red-and-white umbrella outside the Firehouse Tavern for more than a year. Before that, he was near Fourth and Washington streets for three years, working for someone else. Since going into business for himself, he’s expanded the hours and menu.
He sells foot-long quarter-pound dogs and Usinger’s bratwursts — which he says are “better than Johnsonville” — for $3 each. Before charcoal-grilling them on site, he boils the brats in beer and onions and adds hickory or applewood chips to the coals for more flavor. In addition, 5- to 6-ounce rib-eye steaks go for $5, and there is soda pop and water.
Lunch hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. No time? Call ahead and your order will be waiting for you. The phone number is 481-0788. To see a video of Quinnell, go to
www.vidmogul. com and click on the reddish photo under “editor’s choice.”
On Friday and Saturdays, Quinnell caters to the bar crowd from 9 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. or later.
“I might stay out longer to get the last of the drunks, the stragglers,” he said.
Quinnell isn’t afraid of hard work. He said he’s cooked in restaurants for 16 years, including Saputo’s and Sammy’s Sports Bar.
“Since getting my own cart, I’m really trying to make a go of it,” he said.
That’s why the winter weather isn’t going to deter him.
“I layer it up — insulated boots, bibs, several sweatshirts, a parka. I wear my duck-and-goose hunting clothes, a lot of camo.”
And if the snow is heavy, Quinnell simply digs out a spot on the sidewalk for his wheeled cart.
“I’ve been known to bring a shovel to work from time to time.”
Food editor Kathryn Rem can be reached at 788-1520 or
kathryn.rem@sj-r.com.
