“I now have kids of kids of kids,” said Andrea Spaulding, who has actually run the unique Top Dog stand, a roadside destination, for 43 years with help from her partner. Customers originated from all over Connecticut, upstate New York and even Europe one time.
The menu is easy: hot dogs, chips, and soda consisting of Foxon Park of East Haven. Prices are budget friendly: hot dogs variety in rate from $3.60 to $4.70 depending upon the garnishes. Only money is accepted.
The 1963 bun-colored previous camper is based at the defunct Connecticut Central Railroad depot at 211 Marlborough Road, not far from the Portland Bridge.
The trailer, topped by a big, red hot dog total with mustard and relish, was custom-made made by Alan Spaulding. It took him numerous hours to deceive it out.
“When I saw the trailer, I had a vision that it appeared like a hotdog roll (despite the fact that it was a silver color),” he said. That’s when business doubled.
It’s a popular regional landmark, drawn by a 1972 yellow Marathon checker taxi with an “Elvis” mannequin worn a Hawaiian t-shirt as traveler.
“Elvis” has actually been riding with them for more than twenty years. “I thought it would be cute,” Andrea Spaulding said, thinking about the phenomenon. She developed the concept. “I also had Marilyn Monroe, but over the years, we’ve gotten so much stuff that we put in the car, she had to get out.”
She and her partner have actually run the stand together for the previous 4 years after her partner, who began the business in 1980, offered his own undertaking, although he formerly had actually assisted on the weekends when he could, his partner said.
“It’s worked out — knock on wood — really well,” Andrea Spaulding said.
A year after they wed, Andrea Spaulding kept informing her partner that she desired a restaurant, “and this is what I got,” she said, gesturing to the small boundaries.
“He was smart enough to know that running a restaurant is very difficult: The success rate is very low,” she said.
Some clients drop in on their method to check out F40 Motorsports simply up the roadway. Owner host Wayne Carin is host of the “Chasing Classic Cars” documentary program, which has actually included the food truck.
Top Dog’s finest years were throughout the pandemic, Andrea Spaulding said, due to the fact that they had plastic dividers, tailgaters might delight in lunch in the open air and clients might socially distance.
“It was some location for individuals to take their kids and leave your house,” she included.
Now it’s time to retire, Andrea Spaulding said. “I wanted to go 45 years, but, in this day and age, you don’t know what’s around the corner.”
The couple anticipates taking a trip in the summer season, consisting of to Alaska. All these years, they might just take getaway in the winter season, she said.
“I used to tell him jokingly we should just turn it back into a camper, leave the hot dog on top and go across country,” she said.
The hotdog stand, which opened for the season this year on March 29, has actually been included in regional media in addition to on nationwide television programs such as “Road Food,” and a documentary in 2015.
Dave Corsino of Plainville marked time in line Wednesday for a kraut dog. “We’re usually passing by here going somewhere else,” he said of he and his buddy. “It’s the very best hot dogs around.”
“We may prepare the timing of where we require to be to stop here,” he said.
Joe Albert of Portland, who came over with his child, said he “matured” at the hotdog stand. His option is the spicy chili dog, while his child chooses a plain dog with catsup.
“It’s a good place,” he said.
Michaela Miano, a Mercy High School senior, has actually been buying from Top Dog given that she was a kid. “I have really fond memories of coming here with my mom when I was little bit; get a terrific discussion along the method, too,” she said. “It’s a staple of living in Portland.”
She keeps in mind being teased while younger for buying plain hot dogs, she said, however, “I quickly graduated to putting cheese and/or bacon on them.”
Thurmann’s hot dogs are “the very best,” Andrea Spaulding said.
“They’re natural casing,” her partner said. “People like that. … In this business, you’ve got to have the best.”
Little toy checker taxis, a black British taxi and a dog figurine formed like a hotdog on the window counter are presents from clients. “I have so many at my house,” Andrea Spaulding said.
Two regional “celebrities,” Gov. Ned Lamont and Eyewitness News Meteorologist Scott Haney, have actually been their most significant clients for many years.
Andrea Spaulding was especially thrilled about the guv, who dropped in in 2019 with a big entourage, consisting of state cannon fodders, after going to the very first Middletown Pride celebration. He bought a chili dog, their most popular design: “He was standing in line like everybody else. I kept looking. You can’t miss Gov. Lamont,” she said.
“I kept hitting my husband, saying, ‘Is that who I think it is?’ He came up to the window and I’m tongue-tied,” she included.
Haney visited a couple of years prior to that on his method to Pumpkintown U.S.A. in East Hampton. “He saw it and came back and had lunch,” Andrea Spaulding said.
Also, Zippy the Pinhead cartoonist Bill Griffith, who resides in East Haddam, included Top Dog in his cartoon in 2015. “(Zippy) the clown loves my hot dogs,” Andrea Spaulding said with a chuckle.
At completion of every day, the couple hops into the taxi to head home. Inevitably they get waves, gazes and beeping horns from drivers, said Andrea Spaulding, who calls it “a riot.”
Top Dog is now up for sale. The couple intends to discover a purchaser who is as friendly and passionate about the business as they are.
Hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For details, check out Top Dog on Facebook. To ask about purchasing the business, text 860-218-4852 (no call) or email [email protected].
