Lee Silk does landscaping and drives a green Ford pickup with equipment thrown in the back and likes his hot dogs with mustard, nothing too elaborate. Lately, though, he's been stopping for lunch several times a week at Falls Road and West Lake Avenue, where there's this hot dog stand with ambition, a stand pressing the boundaries of the form.
As Silk says, referring to the proprietor behind the grill, "He tries to talk me into the fancy stuff."
With some success, it seems, as Haute Dogs' owner, Daniel Raffel, recalled Silk's recent purchase of a dog made with Italian sausage prepared in a wine reduction. Then there was that bison dog Silk had with the cherry chipotle barbecue sauce.
"He puts all kinds of fancy stuff on it," said Silk, who on a recent sunny Tuesday afternoon had ordered a Deli Dog, a black Angus beef hot dog wrapped in a slice of grilled salami, served in the Haute Dog signature toasted one-piece bun and dressed with Dijon mustard. Silk said he hadn't tried the salami concoction before.
"Every day he's got different stuff, so I keep trying different stuff," said Silk, and ambled off to the pickup truck with his Deli Dog, leaving Raffel and his assistant to tend to customers, who were showing up in a steady stream through lunch hour at the stand set up in a garage next to the Bonjour French Bakery & Cafe on Falls Road.
It seems an odd place for a hot dog stand, given the lack of foot traffic through this well-traveled section of stores just over the city line in Baltimore County. And Raffel, 44, who has 27 years of experience as a chef, caterer, restaurant consultant and interior designer might seem an odd fit for a "huckster's license," as the county calls the business permit.
Behind the stand is a story of life change. Raffel said he's always loved the food business, but the days were too long, the stress too much. There had to be something else.
"I have said many, many times how I would like to stop and open up a hot dog stand or a pit beef stand," Raffel said. "It was mostly a joke, but I've probably said it now for the last 20 years."
One day last spring, he and his friend from the food business, Gayle Brier, who co-owns Bonjour, were drinking old-fashioneds on her back porch in Guilford. They were talking about, among other topics, Raffel's next move.
He had just finished an interior design project, and had also heard about a hot dog cart languishing unused in the driveway of a home near Bonjour. The owner, Jack Bittner, for whom Raffel had just catered an event, had offered to lend it. Right there, amid the Woodford Reserve bourbon and the conversation, Raffel said he decided: "This was going to be the summer I was going to play with the hot dog cart."
He arranged with Brier to use the space in the garage next to Bonjour, got his county permit and opened the first week of July.
Along with the regular menu of one beef and two pork hot dog preparations and the regular vegetarian hot dog, he has offered an array of specials for the same $5 charge, some commissioned from other chefs. There's been a venison, a duck sausage, a sweet Italian, a Bavarian-style bratwurst and a reuben dog containing all the ingredients of a reuben sandwich julienned and stuffed into the bun. On the day of the royal wedding last month, Raffel offered a version of an English variety, the Cumberland sausage.
Customers can choose from an array of five mustards, and two condiments that Raffel makes himself: tomato and onion jam, and bacon and onion marmalade. The condiment-making operation has already outgrown Raffel's home kitchen, and he has leased commercial space for it. Soon he'll be jarring the stuff and selling it at Bonjour.
He had a second stand for eight days last month on University Parkway in the city, right outside the Colonnade. The city shut him down because he was licensed for a cart and the city categorized his business as a "kiosk," for which he needs a different license. He's working on that, and says he'd ultimately like to have three stands in all.
On days he's at the stand, which is not every day, he's there to set up by 10 a.m., open at 11 a.m., closing at about 2:30 p.m., and can "have a cocktail at 6:30." On Thursdays, the stand is open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. along with Bonjour.
Raffel said the stand has exceeded his expectations, as he continues adding to his following of repeat customers.
Howard Katz, who sells commercial laundry equipment and lives nearby, said he stops for a dog when "I'm driving by at lunchtime whenever there's no line."
Nicole Thompson, who works nearby, said she's not a "regular hot dog eater," but she has been to the stand before and probably will go again. On this day she brought her friend, Chrissy Bates, who lives in Bel Air. Both had the bratwurst.
"You can't get a hot dog like this anywhere else," said Thompson.
After months of driving past, Dr. Henry Taylor, who lives nearby, finally stopped just to see what all the fuss is about.
"I'm just amazed by the lines," said Taylor, a physician at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, who ordered a standard quarter-pound black angus with two condiments and Dijon mustard. "It's reinventing the hot dog."