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New hotdog restaurant to be opened by award-winning burger chef
An award-winning burger chef hopes to translate into hotdogs what he has learned over the last decade or so of slinging burgers.
Squeezed owner Alex Hayes is opening Dog Town with fellow chef Ben Nash, and The Beer Necessities‘ Henry Revell.
The trio have already been busy experimenting with different flavours of both hotdogs and beer slushies ahead of Dog Town’s planned opening.
is needed now More than ever
Hayes said: “Both me and Ben really like Americana and we wondered why nobody was doing our take on burgers with hotdogs, not just in Bristol but in the UK. There’s not that many people doing hotdogs, not in the way that people go crazy for them in the States.
“That then flagged up, is it a really bad idea or is a really good idea? We decided that we think it’s a good idea.”
So are hotdogs the new burgers?
“They will be after this, 100 per cent,” said Nash, who currently works with Hayes at Squeezed, and was previously head chef at The Ox and helped launch Bambalan.
“The amount of obsession with flavours that Alex has and what he puts into Squeezed is just going to be replicated into Dog Town.
“It’s going to be obscenely over the top. Huge riffs on beautiful flavours. It’s going to be incredible.”
Dog Town is opening in what was most recently Gopal’s Curry Shack in Cargo 2 in Wapping Wharf – photo: Martin Booth
Dog Town is due to open in early May in Cargo 2 at Wapping Wharf, just around the corner from Squeezed in Cargo 1.
Within just one converted shipping container, Dog Town will initially have just three hotdogs with one vegan option and a revolving special, which is likely to first be a currywurst-style hotdog.
Nash said that Dog Town will not just be doing mustard, “but the most insane mustard that you’re ever going to taste. People are going to want to drink the mustard and pour it all over themselves”.
“And it’s not just ketchup,” he added. “It’s blowing your mind, your perception of where ketchup can go.
“The toppings are going to be mind-mingling. There are going to be the most insane things chucked on top of it, and look so aesthetic.”
Hayes said that hotdogs should not be seen as inferior to burgers. He said: “We will be working with the same things at Dog Town as we do at Squeezed. We will be working with a really good beef product and an excellent bun, and then where we take our pairings with that it can go absolutely anywhere.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Bristol burger chef named best in the UK
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