Also known as "The Hot Dog Chef". A lot of people call themselves a "Food Dude" but there is only one "Real Food Dude". I'm Old School and enjoy Old Fashioned Type Foods. I started out in the mid 1960's when I was the master of Mud Pies. Kids came from all over the neighborhood to play with my Mud Pies. Then around the late 1960's I became the king of Kool-Aid Stands. I made enough money selling m
y Kool-Aid on the sidewalk in front of my parents’ house, that I was able to purchase some cool streamers, etc. to go on the spokes of my bicycle and was able to get a new Banana Seat. Then 1-2 years later I ventured out and turned my Kool-Aid stand into a Fresh Squeezed Lemonade stand. Boy did the sales start growing. By the mid 1970's when I turned 14 yrs. old, I was able to purchase my first Motorcycle to use at my Full Time Job as a Paper Boy. Lemonade was still growing, but it was a weekend business. I think today people call it a Side Hustle. A couple years later when I turned 16 yrs. old, I purchase a 1970 Plymouth Cuda hot rod car and become a undefeated Street Racer. I know, you don't have to tell me. I also was the undefeated High School Drag Racing Champion from 1977 - 1979 at the local dragstrip in Tulsa Oklahoma. After High School my plan was to go to Law School and become a Lawyer. However, first I wanted to get all of the "Wildness" out of my system before hitting the books, so I decided to wait one year and go to work at a Steel Plant that my dad worked at. Still doing my Fresh Squeezed Lemonade "Side Hustle" on the weekends when I was not at a dragstrip racing. Well, long story short, by the end of that first year a business opportunity was kind of dropped in my lap. My dad's boss owned a commercial cleaning company and let me clean some office buildings in the evenings, to make even more $$. He decided to retire and since I did such a great job, he just gave me all his cleaning accounts. Now I was a "real" business owner at the age of 19 and making more money than I knew how to manage. I thought, who needs Law School with this kind of money, so I cancelled the idea of becoming a Lawyer. Yeah, I kind of regret it just a little now as I have always had a desire to help people when I can and being a Lawyer, I could have done that. The commercial cleaning business ended up growing into a couple of multiple states and allowed me to become a "Full Time" Drag Racer traveling the circuit for about 3 years. Still made my lemonade on the weekends at the races. When racing came to an end, I still had the desire to be in the old-fashioned type of food industry, but life took me in different directions. I owned multiple businesses, and some were in the food distribution industry. Many years later I became a vendor as "The Hot Dog Chef" making a variety of different type and styles of Hot Dogs. Then I met reality with the Health Department. I needed a Commissary (commercial kitchen) to prepare my Hot Dogs. Was not able to find one, so I purchased a local Old-Fashioned Hamburger Joint in 2021 that had been in business since 1962 and now I was known as The Food Dude. It was a local big name, but I changed it all over to make it my own thing. Three years later I had almost doubled the sales of what the previous owners were able to accomplish since the 1960's. I always had a dream of owning an Old-Fashioned Burger Joint. I had a three-year lease with the options to renew or purchase the property. However, since I had drastically increased the sales, added new menu items, etc., when it came time to renew the lease or exercise my purchase option, one of the employees whom had worked for the previous owner for over 30 years went behind my back and offered the previous owner some money to not renew my lease and let her and one of her family members have the place instead. So, I unexpectedly was kicked to the curb. I had a couple other businesses but closed them all down to focus on expanding the Old-Fashioned Burger Joint into multiple locations in small area local communities. But since I lost the lease on my building, I also lost 100% of my income and things really crashed like I had never imagined that could happen. After using up the balance on all my credit cards, etc. I was able to secure another small, tiny restaurant that was in a terrible location, but it was the only place I could get and it still gave me my commercial kitchen. $$ ran out and I was not able to survive until I built that location up, so I helped another young lady get into the building selling her Moroccan Food. She is starting to do very well, but the building is still mine, so I have my commissary. I decided to take early retirement now that I am an Old Food Dude and get back out in the vending world. During all this time I discovered the "secret" to making my Fresh Squeezed Lemonade even better and have told by many people it is one of the best Fresh Squeezed Lemonades they have ever had. I make it with real sugar and not simple syrup like most Lemonade Vendors do. They use simple syrup because it is hard to get sugar to dissolve in the water. Well, the secret I discovered solves that problem and my Fresh Squeezed Lemonade Recipe is one of the best you can find in Oklahoma. I will toot my horn a bit on that, because it is one of the best. Not too sweet, not to tart, but just right. Until I can find and afford to get back into a small little restaurant building, I will be out at just about any event I can find offering my Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and some of the Hot Dogs I used to do as The Hot Dog Chef. Vendor prices are expensive at events no matter what type of food or drink that you offer, as you have a lot of expenses being mobile. Hard to keep product fresh, cold and safe but I keep my prices as low as possible and under what most other vendors charge. Not trying to undercut anyone’s prices I just want all my customers to have a fair deal. For now, I am just doing Fresh Squeezed Lemonade and some 1/4 lb. Hot Dog options at local vendor events until I can get back in a position to get another small little restaurant or food trailer, and then look out. I will be back with my Old-Fashioned Breakfast Items, Old-Fashioned Hamburgers, Hot Dogs and Old-Fashioned Tacos. Oh an one more quick thing. I am also licensed with the Department of Agrigulture and used to manufacture Healthier Human Grade Dog Food for my fur buddies who were having some health issues. Now I am working on a new blog to help other pet owners with healthier food option recipies for the fur buddines as well. Peace-Out-4-Now
"The Real Food Dude"
