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Mall hot dog cart
has 'Cheers' ambience
STEAMY WEATHER CAN'T KEEP REGULARS AWAY

For the past 12 years, Mike Horowitz, a New Jersey native, has provided tourists and locals with much needed sustenance in sausage form, piled high with condiments of all varieties. In addition, his stand on the corner of Pearl Street and Broadway serves as an informal gathering place for regulars.

"We call ourselves the HDM," says Jim Grady, jokingly, "The Hot Dog Mafia." Grady, also a New Jersey native, is a regular at the stand.

Horowitz bought the hotdog-vending cart in 1996. In spite of the economic downturn, he hasn't noticed much of a difference in business, likely due to the fact that a meal at his cart costs less than five dollars. Sodas are still 75 cents, where they are one dollar elsewhere, and the most expensive item on the menu is a Buffalo Bratwurst for four dollars.

"This Fourth of July weekend was one of the slowest I've ever seen," said Horowitz, "The last two weeks have also been slow, but this summer has been pretty average overall." He attributes the slow business more to the hot weather than to the economy.

"The hotter it gets, the worse business gets," said Horowitz.

One of the draws of Horowitz's stand is the informal mode of business seen less and less frequently in a tightening market. Customers sit on park benches nearby, leisurely enjoying their food, while Grady and three other regulars talk and joke in camping chairs behind the small cart. Horowitz isn't afraid to sell a hotdog on tab to a frequent customer.

"You can just give me a quarter tomorrow," says Horowitz to a customer digging in his pockets for change.

"When I'm a little short on money I order a 'tab dog,'" says Grady, in reference to purchasing a hotdog on credit, "I think my tab's about $25 at this point."

According to Horowitz , July and August are big months for tourism income in spite of the heat. However, the rest of the year the stand is kept in business by "family regulars," or whole families that come out to Pearl Street on the weekends and stop at his stand.

To some, the stand emits a family atmosphere of its own.

"Have you ever seen 'Cheers'?" asks Grady, "It's kind of like a hotdog version of 'Cheers'."

Story courtesy of The (Boulder) Colorado Daily: www.coloradodaily.com