Haute Dog : An Old-Time Favorite Joins Life Styles of Rich and Famous and Is Heaped With Frank Praise

Hot dogs are a guilty pleasure for Brooks Kindel. As the khaki-suited executive joined the lunchtime crowd at the Kozy Kart hot dog stand in the Century City Shopping Center, he resembled a child on Christmas morning.

“I only allow myself this indulgence once in a while,” said Kindel, 35, grinning as he contemplated the steaming red frank on a hot bun. “And I always come to this stand. They smell so good that I can’t resist.”

Thanks to Kindel and other enthusiasts, the much-maligned frank is enjoying a surprising resurgence on the Westside these days. Health food advocates may not relish the thought, but growing numbers of people are throwing culinary caution to the wind by embracing one of the world’s most notorious junk foods.

Hot dogs, once relegated to the ball park, were served at a posh Century City fund-raiser for Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) not long ago.

Winning New Fans

Traditional and gourmet dogs, including some made of such exotic ingredients as duck, also are winning fans in fitness-conscious communities from Malibu to Hollywood, giving new meaning to the term “dog days of summer.”

And the colorful hot dog carts that have occupied Eastern and Midwestern street corners for decades are now laying claim to the palm-lined streets of some of the Westside’s wealthiest communities. In an interesting melding of cultures, one cart that has been seen in the fashionable Melrose District is pulled by a gleaming BMW.

Health deparment officials report there are about 200 hot dog carts scattered across the county. Frankfurter manufacturers say Los Angeles, once regarded as a wiener wasteland, has become one of their major growth areas.

“We didn’t even have a meaningful presence in Los Angeles until six or seven years ago,” said Walt Stugis, director of marketing for the New York-based Hebrew National Kosher Foods. “Now it’s our fastest growing market. Sales have been increasing by 40% to 80% each year for the past four years.”

California Appeal

Stugis said hot dogs made of high-quality ingredients appeal to “upscale Los Angeles consumers.” Incredibly, he predicts that by summer’s end, Southern California will surpass the Greater New York area, where 20 million Hebrew National hot dogs were sold last year, as the company’s No. 1 market.

Others tell similar tales. Jim Eisenberg, chairman of the Chicago-based Vienna Sausage Manufacturing Co., said his hot dogs are available at 100 to 150 frank stands around Los Angeles, compared to 15 or 20 five years ago.

Eisenberg said Vienna, an all-beef dog that is sold commercially and is not available in grocery stores, cracked the Los Angeles market with an ambitious public relations campaign aimed at the Westside and the San Fernando Valley. “It “It isn’t just a matter of selling someone a hot dog. You have to sell them the concept.”

John McMillin, a food industry analyst for Prudential-Bache Securities, said fast-moving Angelenos are well-suited to the hot dog, despite their legendary fussiness about food.

“In this day and age, anything that can be eaten with one hand, on the run, will do well,” McMillin said. “And clearly, hot dogs are grazing foods. . . . The level of demand has been pretty high.”

Frank Praise

With their fashionable clothing and their trim physiques, a lot of people seen at hot dog stands look like they must have taken a wrong turn on the way to the sushi bar. The average wiener, after all, contains nearly 300 calories, not counting chili. But hot dog devotees are extremely frank in their praise.

Claudia Montero likes hot dogs because “they’re good and inexpensive,” with the average dog costing $1.50 to $2.50. Larry Gast, a salesman who occasionally eats franks for lunch, said: “I like them. I don’t know if they’re that good for you, but they sure are convenient.” Larry Guerra said hot dogs fit his life style. “I’m a carpenter, so I like junk food,” he said. Added J. R. Larson, his friend: “As long as you don’t know what’s in them, you’re OK.”

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council in Oakbrook, Ill., reports that New York and Chicago still reign as the frankfurter capitals of the world, though they do not keep precise statistics on regional or national hot dog sales. But Los Angeles may soon become known as the haute dog capital, as manufacturers entice local taste buds with everything from chicken and turkey dogs to veal and duck.

“Your part of the country is kind of ripe for the whole gourmet hot dog thing,” said Fran Altman, the hot dog and sausage council spokeswoman.

On Westwood Boulevard, Wally’s Liquor Store, which is well known for its vast selection of wines and single-malt scotches, offers something known as a “Wally Dog,” a concoction specially created by the store’s owner.

Free Samples

In Venice, Jordan Monkarsh has built a gourmet sausage empire out of a small hot dog and sausage stand on Ocean Front Walk. Billing himself as “Jody Maroni the Sausage King,” Monkarsh first lured people in with free samples.

Today, the Venice stand is thriving (he expects to sell about 800 sausages and hot dogs on July 4 weekend), but Monkarsh has diversified. He supplies his nitrite- and preservative-free sausages to more than 15 restaurants and recently received federal government approval to market his products in grocery stores. Among those slated for the shelves are Bombay Curried Sausage with Monoucka Raisins, Chicken and Duck Kishka and Yucatan Chicken and Duck Sausage.

“In the last few years, our business has definitely picked up,” Monkarsh said. “The whole phenomenon has caught on. In the past, I would always see sausages and peppers in New York and Boston . . . but never here until now.”

Two Westside-based gourmet hot dog companies with national franchise aspirations also have opened recently. The Wurst, with stores in Westwood Village, the Melrose District and New York City, offers such sandwiches as the “Quackwurst” (duck, chicken and cilantro), the “Bockwurst” (veal with parsley) and the “Wurst Link” (beef with Cajun spices).

Bob Gura, a partner, said business is going well so far, especially at the Westwood location, which is usually packed at lunchtime. Gura said the concept behind the Wurst is lifting the basic hot dog to a higher plane.

Vegetarian Hot Dog

“There is a very discriminating palate on the Westside and a tremendous amount of health consciousness,” Gura said. “With that in mind, we developed a vegetarian link with nuts, seeds and grains. We also have turkey sausage.”

The Wurst also serves a basic all-beef wiener called the “All American Dog.” Ironically, Gura says it is one of their biggest sellers.

At Muster’s Hofbrau in Century City, the accent is more Germanic. With a menu that includes knackwurst, bratwurst and sauerkraut, the owners hope to attract office workers, shoppers and moviegoers at the newly renovated mall.

Loren Singer is one of Muster’s partners. Another is actor Wayne Rogers. Singer said that hot dogs got a bad rap in the past because there were so many bad ones. Now, he said, people are more appreciative of a high-quality dog.

“People are coming into these types of places because they’re good and they’re cheap,” Singer said. “If you offer good, quality hot dogs, people will buy them. . . . Some people will ask what’s in them, but not too many.”

Ingredient Disclaimers

Most consumers are apparently willing to go on faith since all hot dog peddlers claim their franks are made of only the finest ingredients. The same disclaimers are issued at practically every stand on the Westside.

“We use all-beef hot dogs,” said the Kozy Kart’s George Kavalis. “That’s our secret.”

“It’s very hard to find a good hot dog,” said Stan (Rocky) Lane, owner of Rock’s Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Stand at 12227 Santa Monica Blvd. “That’s why we use 100% all-beef hot dogs.”

“Ours are all-beef with a natural casing,” said Dennis Blake of the venerable Tail of the Pup at 329 N. San Vicente Blvd.

“Other people don’t offer the same quality as we do,” said Paul Pink, owner of Pink’s, the Westside’s other landmark hot dog stand at 711 N. LaBrea Ave. “Ours is an all-beef hot dog.”

Their defensiveness may be understandable, however, considering that the wiener has been widely vilified over the years for containing disgusting animal parts (many of them have since been removed) and condemned by consumer advocates for their lack of nutritional value.

In 1980, someone even suggested that the poor frankfurter should be flattened out so it more closely resembled the more popular hamburger.

Consumer Rating

And in 1986, Consumer Reports magazine reported that none of the 63 brands it tested cut the mustard when it came to the magazine’s top rating, and only 10 made the second-best category. The study said hot dogs tend to be high in sodium, fat and water, and reported that consumers would have to buy $30.65 cents worth of one popular frankfurter to obtain one pound of protein.

“Hot dogs are mostly water and fat,” the company concluded in the 2-year-old study. “Descendants of sausage, they’re made of odds and ends of meat ground with water and spices, pumped into casings, cooked and cured.”

The new gourmet hot dog purveyors might challenge that definition. But the average Los Angeles consumer does not appear troubled by it, since this city continues to take a bigger and bigger bite of the national hot dog market.

The Hot Dog and Sausage Council reports that the average person eats 80 wieners a year, and another study showed 50 million dogs are consumed each year.

Mike Mikhail, an Egyptian immigrant who operates the Tasty Hasty hot dog cart in the Wilshire District and on Melrose Avenue, said the sale and consumption of hot dogs amounts to an act of patriotism.

“There’s a kind of mythology that goes along with the hot dog business,” Mikhail said as he stood on a Melrose street corner grilling onions. “The American people, they have pride in them. Italy has pizza. Japan has sushi. And we have the hot dog. It’s made here in America, and it’s good food.”

Mikhail is proud of his product. When county health department officials charged that his food was not properly protected from contamination earlier this year, he accused them of persecuting a merchant who had cashed in his savings to purchase a $5,000 vending cart. And in leaflets that said, “Wake Up America!” he called on his customers to rise up in his defense.

Pride in Product

Dolores Tsehanovsky, a Soviet immigrant who recently opened the colorful Hot Dog USA at 9123 W. Olympic Blvd. in Beverly Hills, sees a similar link between the frank and the promise of America. Tsehanovsky gradually saved enough money to open her shop and puts in 12 hours a day, six days a week. While the hamburger field is dominated by huge international chains, the hot dog business is still open to regular people, she said.

“People can feel the love that I put into my work,” Tsehanovsky said. “There’s a lot of competition these days, but I don’t really worry about it. When you have a good reputation, that’s what’s important in this business.”

Pink’s and the Tail of the Pup have survived on their good reputations for years, including times when hot dogs were not nearly as popular as they are today. Paul Pink, who served his first dog in 1939, said business has never been better. He said some of his best customers come in after midnight.

“Between midnight and 2 a.m., all of the drunks come by from the bars to sober up,” Pink said. “We also get people on their way to dinner. It’s like having a salad before a meal. It appeases the empty stomach. When people have a craving for some food, a hot dog is the first thing they think about.”

Pink added that he is not worried about the growing numbers of hot dog competitors on the Westside, because people tend to be true to their frank stands. Dennis Blake, who co-owns Tail of the Pup with his father, agreed.

Loyal Clientele

There were fears that the 40-year-old frankfurter-shaped stand, part of the city’s pop architectural folklore, would lose customers when construction of the new Ma Maison Hotel forced it off La Cienega Boulevard last year. But Blake reports the same crowd continues to gather at the new stand.

“On a banner day, we can sell 40 to 50 dozen hot dogs,” Blake said. “The hot dog business has made a living for me and my father for 15 years. So I can’t argue about anything. It pays the bills.”

The hot dog council’s Altman said the frankfurter has nowhere to go but up. By embracing the small round sausages as their own, she said Los Angeles residents are finally discovering what others have realized for years.

“People are broad-minded and better educated these days,” Altman said. “They know that if they have a hot dog for lunch, they can always balance it off with something more healthful at dinner. A hot dog . . . is not going to destroy you.”