Meat + Poultry - February 2010 - 46

Street Vending
S
Louie DiRaimondo, owner and CEO of
Miami-based manufacturer All American
Hot Dog Carts. (Photo courtesy of All American Hot Dog Carts)

Takin' it to
the streets
Hot dog vendors serve up
entrepreneurial spirit on a bun
BY LARRY AYLWARD
meatpoultry@sosland.com

he hot dog business has been
good to Louie DiRaimondo - as
good as a perfectly steamed Chicagostyle dog with all the tasty toppings.
DiRaimondo is owner and CEO

The hot dog cart has
played a substantial role
in the success of the hot
dog - and vice versa.
of Miami-based manufacturer All
American Hot Dog Carts. He's somewhat of a star in the hot dog industry
and has attracted much media attention over the years. But DiRaimondo,
the self-proclaimed "Hot Dog King,"

couldn't have had a more modest beginning. His business began with a
used hot dog cart.
In 1972, an unemployed DiRaimondo saw a hot dog cart for sale and
bought it, figuring he could
m a ke a few
bucks as a vendor, which he
did by working
the streets, private parties, fairs and
other special events. Over the years,
as DiRaimondo's customers continued to ask him where they could buy
hot dog carts to begin their own businesses, it finally occurred to him that

46 * Meat&Poultry * February 2010 * www.MeatPoultry.com

he should begin his own hot dog cart
manufacturing company.
So he did. DiRaimondo began
buying old hot dog carts, refurbishing them and selling them out of his
home. As the business grew, DiRaimondo began designing his own carts
and eventually moved the business out
of his house in 1988.
"It snowballed into this," he says of
All American Hot Dog Carts, a multimillion dollar company that has five
buildings, including its own manufacturing plant. The company makes
five hot dog-cart styles, including the
Chicago, the New York and the Teenie
Weenie. DiRaimondo even introduced
his own line of hot dogs - "Louie's All
American Kosher Hot Dogs."
DiRaimondo says his cart business
has grown 70 percent since 1985. It
dipped about 15 percent in 2009 because of the economy, but he is confident
it will pick up as the economy improves.
The entrepreneur estimates that 15 percent of the approximately 10 billion hot
dogs consumed by Americans in 2008
were purchased from hot dog carts.
The hot dog industry needs people
like DiRaimondo, for the hot dog cart
has played a substantial role in the success of the hot dog - and vice versa.

A "two-way" street
The hot dog has its roots in Germany,
dating back to the 15th century. The
hot dog cart is thought to have been
invented in the late 1800s. Fast-forward to 2010 inside Chicago's O'Hare
International Airport. Patrons are
bustling up to a hot dog cart - this
one anchored by a Vienna Beef umbrella - to purchase one of the Chicago company's famed frankfurters.
Bob Schwartz, senior vice president
of customer development for Chicago-based Vienna Beef, says the company has a sizeable stake in hot dog
carts and counts on these vendors to
sell its products.

http://www.MeatPoultry.com

Meat + Poultry - February 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat + Poultry - February 2010