Hot Dog University
August 27, 2025 at 09:08PMFor Switchboard, Celia Aniskovich goes to Hot Dog University at Vienna Beef Headquarters in Chicago to learn about what it takes to run a hot dog cart. There she profiles seven hopefuls from all walks of life who still relish the American dream: running a successful small business.
There’s something quietly radical about that. In a country where “entrepreneur” has become a buzzword for tech bros and hustlers, the students at Hot Dog U are a different breed. They’re working-class dreamers. Retired couples. First-generation families. People who don’t want to disrupt the industry. They just want a patch of sidewalk, a roll of napkins, and a line of hungry customers.
Bill is the head of Hot Dog University. He’s your professor of encased meats, your guide through everything from cart etiquette to bulk ordering logistics. Bill makes you feel like you’re the most important person in the room. Like you could sell a thousand hot dogs by sheer charm and will. When you step off the elevator, you’re greeted by Bill and by the start of the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame: posters, trinkets, and sausage-themed memorabilia spanning more than a century. It’s like a hot dog museum married a high school hallway. At some point, it starts to feel a little mythic — like the yellow brick road, if Oz were made of mustard and meat.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2025/08/27/hot-dog-university/
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