NY Hotdog King: Dan Rossi - Street Food Vendor Life

We're recording on-site at Ibis Images Studios , where food photography comes alive and I get to eat it . Here's a humble request to give us a follow on Instagram at walkandshow , please and thank you . I'm into quality smoked fish dips and spreads . I know you are too . Check out our friends over at Crab Island Seafood Company .

Visit them at crabislandseafooddipcom and order yours today . Last week we had Chef Brandon Clark , creative mind behind Hot Sauce , darling Clark and Hopkins super inspiring episode . Go back and listen up . I lived in Brooklyn as a child .

There are many things I miss and fond memories I cherish with my family , kind of like dunking the bread into my grandmother's sauce pot and all the homemade old school Italian food during the holidays . I also miss L&B pizza in Bensonhurst . It's my all-time favorite . But you know what else I miss Street cart hot dogs .

To spend time with me , my Uncle Anthony would say hey , carlucci , let's go take a ride in the car , we'd go to Radio Shack or Crazy Eddie's and then , inevitably , we'd stop for some dirty water hot dogs .

It was an experience the snap of the hot dog skin , all the flavors , washing it down with a yoo-hoo or a mellow yellow , just standing on the corner and eating , talking , listening to his stories and topics that , frankly , were probably inappropriate for a seven-year-old . That's the way it was back then . These moments were indeed special to me .

Who would think that behind the veil of my happy , nostalgic food memories are the actual struggles of what it takes to be a food vendor on the streets of New York ? Today we're going to dive into a remarkable journey of our guest , dan Rossi , New York's hot dog king . It's a fascinating story , but first let's welcome Jefferson back to the studio .

What's cooking , baby ? We missed you last week .

The menu for today Reached out to one of our farmers and someone that supports us , vicki Webster , over at Happy Tales , and she gave us some Kuni Kuni pork and we have a pork tenderloin and a pork chop that we're going to do Two different ones , since it is about to start being apple season up in New England . I was like , hmm , I read this menu .

It was funny as anything Cause . Keith was like , hey , remember where we got those cider donuts ? It's right on the way . We ended up getting it on Sunday we ended up going back up to we forgot a catering rental unit , just one box , one and a half hour away , three hour drive to go pick the box up .

Then the pork tenderloin is going to be grilled figs , prosciutto , burrata , blistered tomatoes , pickled fennel with roasted potatoes .

And then I wanted to do cause it's getting a little bit fall , like in other parts of the country besides Florida , cause it's still 95% , 95 humidity I ended up doing a chili , but it's with hot hatch chilies which are from new mexico , some of her chicken . That is just absolutely phenomenal .

We're gonna do some pickled avocado and then garlic chili crisp and then bourbon bacon to finish that off , to give it some depth and complexity .

By the way , today we're going to be shooting our acceptance speech for the People's Choice Awards for the podcast category , and it's not that we've won anything , but we're in the finals and we have to actually shoot this in order when we find out actually who does win and if it is us , we'll have it prepared Super stoked about this .

Street food no kidding yeah , in orlando I was amazed , especially for what they charged , like ten dollars oh well , sure that's , they're not making a uh killing on that .

But anyhow , speaking of all of this hot dogs and New York street food , I think we should usher in our guest today . Yeah , I think so too . Dan Rossi , welcome to the program . Glad to be here . Thank you kindly .

Yeah , we had you and I had a long conversation a couple of weeks ago , kind of talking about your , your rise , if you will , in this you know hot dog street cart world over there , and then fall and then rise again and I think I think the story is incredible and I kinda I do have questions here for you .

But before we jump into questions , if you could give kind of an airplane view of who you are , where you came from and you know how you , how you got into the food cart business , hot dogs specifically , that would be terrific .

And as soon as I put it for sale I sold it . So that became my business . I started to , you know , at home and night I would build a cart . When it was done I'd sell it . I ended up being the largest hot dog company in the city's history . Within about 10 years I had 500 carts on the street , which is a pretty amazing feat .

But because of my background as a veteran and pretty much an advocate for veterans , the city went ahead and removed all the vets from Midtown Manhattan , and it was just , if you saw it , at the time there were only about 20 , 30 guys doing it . So I got involved . What decade was that ? Oh , this is the 90s . Okay , they went ahead and I got involved .

It took a little while , but I managed to reverse the law and because I did it , I had to be punished , they told me , because a lot of bigwigs were behind this thing and they went ahead and they actually passed a law and took away my business , which was another amazing thing and that kind of dragged me out .

You know , I went from owning a beautiful home in Greenwich , connecticut If you know anything about Greenwich , it's one of the finest places to live in the country and I ended up living in a van with me and my wife . So I went ahead and I said what are we going to do ? We went from nothing to having a great life , having less than nothing now .

So I said you know what ? I'm going to ? Gonna sell hot dogs . And I went to help out a vet in front of the vet who was having trouble and he was a very disturbed guy , you know ptsd and all that and he just gave up and I said I was had my youngest daughter with me and I said you know what ?

I'm gonna get a card and I'm gonna start doing this and I didn't want to upset the the apple cart . You know , I had enough of that politics stuff . I didn't want to be involved with any of it . So I didn't actually go in front of the man . I went a couple blocks away and as soon as I set up they started to harass me .

The police and you know so I told . I said , after about 40 times , I said , look now , every time you come here I'm going to move 10 feet closer to the men . And they did as they were writing tickets to me . I moved the pushcart . I mean it became comical because none of these tickets ever stuck . I wasn't doing anything wrong .

And then , finally , I ended up right in front of the men . I said what are you going to do ? And they arrested me . That was the best day of my life , to be honest with you .

I says now I got them , now I know I can be here , and that started to establish me as the , as the hot dog king . I mean it just , it just took off . And you know , one thing led to another . This , 18 years later , I'm still here , I'm still getting harassed , I'm still getting tickets , I'm still getting shut down .

But well , it's all nonsense , it's just the smoke and mirrors that they're doing so what was that ?

You know , there's a big difference between building a cart and putting it on the street and actually being behind that cart . So , but it didn't take me long to get into the knack . I kind of enjoyed it , but the thing was to find the best thing . Now you guys talk about the dirty water hot dog . Well , but the thing was to find the best thing .

Now you guys talk about the dirty water hot dog . Well , that's a thing of the past , to be honest with you . There was a time when every hot dog manufacturer made a hot dog with a casing on it so the water wouldn't affect it as bad . But now all the hot dogs have no casing .

So if you went ahead and put a package of these uncased hot dogs in water , some of them shrink , some of them get big . I mean , it's a different hot dog from what you guys remember when you were younger , and so the best way to cook a hot dog is on a flat grill .

So that's what I did I built the flat grill and then the next thing to do was to find the right hot dog . So you just can't go and buy a specialty hot dog because you have to have consistency , you know you have to be . This has to be reliable .

So I went through every single brand of hot dog that we could buy locally and you know that's common to buy to find the right one . And once we hit on that , that was the home run . We found the perfect hot dog to put on a flat grill .

I don't know what they are . But , believe me , don't get fooled by that . And it's a bad thing , because some of these companies are pretty good companies and then they find out somebody's eating something that's not what they think they are .

I don't know if I can mention names , but if you went to buy a certain brand , unless you see the package of those hot dogs , you're probably not getting it . They'll put anything in front of you .

So that's it . You've got the taste , you got the same hot dog . People come from us two , three years ago , dan , you know , and it's the same thing . That's matters .

Not that they come today and they taste the one kind of hot dog come tomorrow or something else , you know , and our relationship with the people , I mean , we just have a great relationship with the , you know , the people who live around here , and that's a hard thing to do because this is a pretty wealthy people , you know , and they , they buy me all the

time .

Is there that sort of oh it just .

But you know , and that that's the way it is . It's never undercut . Forget about undercut . They're . They're overcharging these people by a ton so then , what's the ?

Now you can imagine what would happen if they went to these other guys . You know , I'll tell you the truth . They just watch you . They take that shot that you're a tourist and then they hit you Because there's no price list . And once they hand you that and you take it and they say $10 or $15 , you end up paying it .

You know that's insane , Some people I can't tell you how many times I see a hot dog thrown at one of these guys or fights break out . It's , it's almost everyday occurrence because they picked on the wrong person . See what you're going to do is you've got to set up a camera to catch all that reality tv man absolutely so is is it safe to say , dan ?

They're getting the guy who works in a factory or in a building , the janitors and the doormen and all that , and it's almost as if they could tell what they're going to make by the end of the day before they even start the day , because they see the same people every day Go ahead . I'm sorry , go ahead , no ahead no , but when I am , it's not that way .

You know , we have our regulars , but it's nothing compared to what they have . They , they're , we're 99 tourists , they're 99 percent . Uh , you know regulars and that's the world of difference .

But that one month kind of says we go down into a valley and then we start to climb back up again , but then by January we're back down in the valley again . But locations in Midtown where it's the workers , there's no slump . You know a coffee cart in Midtown . They know what they're going to make every day of the week .

They see the same people every day of the week and if they can survive on that they're doing great .

And then you kind of you know , let's just say , you get kicked in the belly and you know , here you are , you're sleeping in your van to hold a spot for the cart at the Met .

And there are too many more opportunities . I can't go in a shoe metal shop and go bang metal . Those days are gone . But I fell into this . I actually got trapped into this because of the illegals . Again , right now , in front of the Met there are 10 carts and well , I'm legal . The rest of them are not legal and the city is complacent with them .

You have no idea how bad the city is right now in vending . There are more illegal vendors in the city than I've ever heard of and there's nothing they do about it . There's absolutely zero enforcement . They've given up on enforcing vending and what saves me is the fact that we have bus stops and things . That's the one thing you can't do .

You can't go on a bus stop or a taxi stand and we're like a little oasis know that , so there's nothing immediate . I got one car maybe 30 feet from us , but the rest of a half a block away , so that saves me .

But we're talking about maybe myself and one other car around the entire central park illegal and the rest are not and they're not going to touch these people .

You know , like when I hire someone , I have to make sure I can put them on the books and the city doesn't allow them to work legally . So what do they do ? They either end up I don't know , that's not that much crime , but it's a bad atmosphere but a lot of them end up going on the street vending .

You'll see blankets all over the street with them selling knockoff jewelry or handbags or hats or whatever they're doing . And we're talking about a lot of them . We're not talking about a few people , we're talking about hundreds .

I mean , it's just all over the place .

The health department doesn't do a thing and what they do is they put vending in the department of sanitation's hands . What the hell do they know about vending to sanitation people ? That was the biggest joke in the world . They need some enforcement . You know they need some enforcement .

You know , not Gestapo style thing , but you have to go down and say , listen , guys , you can't be here , and then that'll do it . You know , start knocking them away . Especially , I got one right outside the pickup truck right now selling you know fruits , you know , and she's got a little basket and she's doing it . They got hundreds of those people here .

You got to give them an opportunity to work . That would be the big deal .

What name are they giving you ? It's a waste of time . And then you know , you give them a ticket . They throw it away . What is that ? But you give me a ticket and I have to battle it . You know there's a whole different ballgame . There's just no oversight at all , nothing , zero . I'll give you an example .

We did a little special for a company a few weeks ago and they covered my cart completely with their advertising . We've given away hot dogs for them . And right next , right next to my car , is my daughter's car .

So inspector comes , he goes to my daughter and we have like banners that come down off the umbrella , the the advertisement , little panels , and it was blocking the permit . So he gave her a ticket for blocking the permit . This is so ridiculous , five feet away and my permit is completely covered . And he didn't even .

And my daughter said well , what about my father and he said no , no , no , I'm here for you . So the health department only goes to a court , or it goes after the complaint 50 people could be there breaking the law , but it only goes to a cart .

Or it goes after the complaint 50 people could be there breaking the law , but it only goes to that one person that they got the complaint for . And then they walk away , they close their eyes . Everything else has happened . It's , it's just amazing .

Especially when you're legitimate , it really turns your , your stomach , you know , knowing that , well , this is going on and these clowns are coming here just to bother me and , uh , that's so well , you know , I say I'm used to it , but I'm almost used to it no , I mean , I don't know .

Can't the community make a stand , open their mouth , do something ?

When they can resolve it before anything bad happens , they don't do it . There's nobody in charge that's going to take that responsibility . It's not happening .

It's impossible to enforce a law against an illegal person . They're already breaking the law law against an illegal person , they're already breaking the law . You know when , when they told me that , that the inspector said look , if it's got no permit , we're told to keep going . So that told you everything , that .

He looks at the permit and he says this is a . This permit's not allowed on the fox property . And I looked , we looked at what . Are you crazy ? We're here 18 years . My permit happens to probably be the oldest permit in New York City . It was issued in 1983 .

So he scraped the permit off my cart , shut me down , put a big poster on my cart , you can't work . So I called up his supervisor and the supervisor was playing stupid . And then for almost four weeks they wouldn't allow me to work , until finally I started to talk a little tough and then they reversed themselves . Oh , the permit is fine , I says .

But I almost lost four weeks of work . And now you tell me the permit is fine . If you knew the permit was fine before you scraped it . You know , I said you know . These are the kind of games they play . And then you know what can you do ? You end up going to court . I'm gonna end up going to court for this .

I've been in court so many times in my life . I don't want to go to court , but I have to do it .

They're going to completely remove any privileges we have and just throw us in with the other vendors and that's the end of us . So they know getting me is like a home run and they've been trying to do this for years .

I mean , I can't tell you how many times I've been ticketed and gone to court and they don't care about the decisions that the courts bring out . I actually argued the case in the appellate court and won , and the city said so what you won , we don't care what the judges say . They do what they want . They will take you to court again .

And what they tried to do is , when they kicked all the vets out of midtown years ago and I got them back , they came up with a law for them , for the people selling like general merchandise hats and trinkets and stuff , and tried to tie it into a food vendor . And that's one of the things we went to court for and we won .

We're food vendors , we're not selling hats . You know , what they told me was they want me to give up my permit and get a license to sell hats and then they'll give me back a different permit . I said but you want me to get a license that doesn't allow me to sell food . He said , yeah , don't worry about that . I said , yeah , I am worried about that .

What am I ? A moron or something ? It was so stupid . And then finally they gave in . But that's what they're expecting me to do , and I'm the only one who hasn't done it . The other vets did it because they don't care , but I do care . You know we all see things differently and you know I've been through much .

I've been through too much with the city and the government and the law , then been through too much with the city and the government and the law . That I that what I know , I'm right and when the courts back me up I'm going to stand by what's right . I'm not going to just bend to them because that's what they want .

So you're , we spoke , I already have opinions , we're talking and now those , you know , everything kind of changes a little bit and it , you know , comes out into the podcast . You , you really wear the New York hotdog King on your sleeve Like that's , that's a part of your personality , right ?

I mean because you know , like you said a second ago , like hey , I'm the last one If they , if they , take me down , then the whole thing goes away . You're kind of like you're . You're out there sitting on on your proverbial throne , the cart , and you're sitting up there and you're going to run this to the end , huh .

And the reason that I have to have her next to me is because if I didn't , there would be an illegal right next to me , is because if I didn't there would be an illegal right next to me , they'd be here in a second . That's why I sleep here every night . You know , in a minute .

And then I actually had one police captain says look , we'll get rid of you before them . And when you hear a police captain tell you that , you say you know , I'm on my own , I have to defend myself and that's what I've been doing . It's not a nice thing .

Well , you have no idea how tough I can be . I don't take crap from anybody . We had to face them down . Let them know that we're going to go to a level that they don't want to go to Street stuff you got to sometimes turn into .

I never allowed anybody to abuse anybody when I'm around . You know , there were certain things that triggered me and when I found out that the richest people in the city were the ones abusing these men , I said you know , come on , guys , all you have to do is help them . You know we're not talking about a thousand people , there's a few people .

And they dug in and I dug in and you know I remember when one of the mayor's people said back away from the vets and I said it's not going to happen . And he said , well , we're going to bankrupt you . I said you do what you got to do .

I said you know I can guarantee you that any combat vet out there who's carried as many wounded and dead as I have is never going to ever turn their back on a vet , never . It's not going to happen . It's in our DNA and that was it .

And you know , when I say I'm the last , it's because in my mind , if I'm gone , the veterans are gone , you know , and maybe something will turn around and somebody will listen to me and finally straighten this out . But you know , I have to do what I have to do .

I mean , is there advice that you would give somebody , Tell them to don't do it at all , or what would you do ?

I hate to tell you that you don't fit in . And I must have had a half dozen guys work with me . I bring them in , calm them down . They start to get readjusted and I said it's time for you to go Now . Go find something you can do . And I did that to at least a half a dozen guys .

When I started my initial sheet metal business hired all Vietnam vets because nobody would hire them . You have to be one of them to understand them . You have to go through what they're going through to understand how to work around it . The only problem I have now , after the pandemic that all stopped . I guess we don't have the financial means anymore to try .

We don't have that extra spot for the guy . I had a vet call my daughter the other day . I hear your dad will hire my daughter . He said you come on down . He never came . But we said you come on down and we'll try and fit you in Squeeze a day , two days , whatever we can do .

If you want to learn how to get a permit , we'll take you to court and get a permit . If you want a cart , I hope you build it . When I started my company , a vet walked in the shop . He got the cart for free a disabled vet . I never once would take a penny off a guy . Give him a shot . There weren't that many of them at the time .

Now that's all gone . That structure , that base . I can't do it now because of the financial situation we're in , but I would love to do it . I would actually love it . In fact , the city last year came up with a program that was actually backed up by an individual to help veteran small businesses and they would give them a $20,000 grant .

So I went and I never heard . I didn't know what a pitch was . So I went and did a pitch , like I'm talking to you . That was the pitch , you know . Everybody was coming up with charts and all this and I said what the hell is this , you know ? And I walked into a room and there was about 30 people in there .

So I went and I told them who I was and what I intended to do and I said my problem is the cards that we have are 10 years old . They're falling . Partner , I don't have the money to build new cars .

So I got it I mean the Department of Small Business Service and especially the Department of Veterans Affairs that they have in the city now the guy who's running it is this guy , james Hendon the best thing that ever happened to veterans in New York City and I got it and I built two new cars for me and my daughter .

And I told him you know , there was a time when I would be the one that would be doing this . No one had asked me . I did it , but I can't do it anymore and then people helped me . So the good that I gave out some of it came back to me , you know .

Not that I didn't get everyone a permit , because when I broke the broke the door down to get my daughter a permit , I was able to get all the all the disabled vets a permit , but they they went ahead and took them and leased them . Being able to do this business a a disabled person is extremely hard .

They need a lot of support and these guys didn't have a support system . So they went and they got the permit , leased it illegally . Everything is illegal now . Everything is illegal and that was the end of them . So when I had my company , there was a system . There were two other companies that were owned by vets . We joined forces to help the vets .

You know , we had commissary space for them . I built the cars for them , we taught them . That was different , but they took that away from us . The city was so against the veterans that they actually , you know , basically they put me out of business just because I was a disabled vet . That was it and I was helping them . That was it . That's all gone .

There's absolutely no effort in New York City to help us . Nobody's going to help us , and I've been to the politicians down there . They don't even listen to you . So you know . But the way to do it is to do it on my own .

If I could , I would have a shop , I would have a little commerce area and I would hire these guys , just like I did before they teach them how to build carts If they want to be a vendor . Teach them how to be a vendor , put them on the street , make them independent . Not that they work for me , that they work for themselves .

That was the whole goal for this to get the guys back out there into the world and learn to do things again .

I think it's important that we actually put the shine of light on things , because you know the old saying , we have old sayings for reasons . Right , the squeaky wheel gets the oil , and the more that we squeak about this , the more that things need to change . If the city of new york is doing things against veterans , and what are you doing ?

Because these are the people that give us the freedoms and and after yesterday , what we celebrated Patriot Day , which affected New York greatly and those 3,000 people that perished . It's disgusting to hear this stuff like this . There's different people out there that are doing things .

My brother-in-law is somebody big in the veterans affairs and dealing with PTSD and it's shocking to hear a city such as New York , as great as it should be , snuffing out for lack of better terminology , snuffing out veterans .

You know the restaurant industry in itself , we seem to be the one that's the light of the moths , and the moths are the misfits and the pirates and specifically those that have gone abroad to fight in combat .

Because we have the hierarchy and I've worked with so many different veterans and I know I don't know from ptsd of being in battle , but I know from seeing them and what they go through I'm kind of disgusted with new York right now . As a matter of fact , yeah .

Yeah , and I think , unfortunately , you can't manage your business and then attack the politicians , because you have to have that quality of life plus have the business , and you're protecting that business because , for crying out loud , the police officers are not doing their job .

We send boys to war and yet they come home and we don't have any means to integrate them , like you said , because they're not ready to go back in the public , because they're in that combat mode and they're in PTSD mode , and I understand that . But this is an opportunity for us to integrate them back into the society , to leave a normal life .

It's quite disgusting .

But you know , if you read my book , you'll see where I went down into that valley and I just barely got out of it and , by the way , the name of the book , folks , is the New York hot dog king , from rags to riches , to less than rags .

Let's , uh , let's , let's , let's keep the uh , let's keep the conversation going , dan , and you know we'll catch up . There's a couple of people I want to introduce you to to see if there's some synergies there that maybe you know . Maybe there's some some backup .

Sometimes you need a voice , a third voice , because if you know anything about politicians , you speak to them twice . They don't want to speak to you a third time .