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Cheap Eats: Dean's Dogs
By Shelley D. Zajaceskowski

There is a small family-owned restaurant in Gloversville, NY, called "Dean's Dogs." Dean Edwards is the owner/manager with over 30 years of restaurant experience. Created in 1994 Dean has a real winner here in the restaurant business. Voted “best of the best” from a contest sponsored by the Leader Herald, not only do the locals enjoy everything he has to offer but people as far away as Canada to Florida to California to Arizona eat Dean’s Dogs and meatsauce. You can buy a hot dog with their over 70 year old recipe of famous homemade meat sauce, with mustard and onions on top for a real mouth pleasing taste. Most folks cannot eat one; they must buy and eat two at a time! They are so delicious and no one makes meat sauce like "Dean's Dogs". They offer as toppers for your hot dog, cheese sauce, sauerkraut, chili and grilled peppers and onions. For the finicky child, a “sloppy dean!” This is with NO dog!

They also offer great fries with brown gravy and a local favorite but new to some, macaroni salad with gravy!! Yes, that is right, gravy on your macaroni salad! Personally, I have not tried that one yet. There is also the old standby of regular macaroni or potato salad available. From soups to chowders to old-fashioned rice pudding to chili with cheese or onions, these are all homemade by Dean himself. For dessert they have ice cream, candy or fruit cocktail (in season) to round out your meal. You can eat in or take out and let me tell you, there is usually a line all the way out the door, for take out orders as this place is so popular and affordable. There isn't anything I can think of that costs more than $3.00 an item on this menu. They offer a small indoor eating area of tables and chairs and a very nice set-up of picnic tables outside. And with a perfect Health Department rating you cannot go wrong here.

Dean starts his day off at 8 a.m. every morning to get things going. The restaurant itself opens at 11 a.m. and is open through 6 p.m. At closing time Dean and his staff are still there cleaning up and getting ready for the next business day.

I asked Dean if he thought his business had changed recently due to his competition across the street (Mike’s)? He said, “No, I just keep on doing what I do. We can keep on improving in what we do.” And speaking of improving things, Dean said his website is a definite improvement towards building his business. He is proud of what his site offers with the menu selection and especially excited about his soup line. He makes all the soups himself with no particular recipe. Dean says, “ I don’t measure.” It is all from his head and heart that his soups have become so popular. He said with the colder months approaching the soup business picks up. He is asking the public to visit his website at: www.deansdogs.com and check it out and then if anyone has any soup ideas that they would like to see offered to email in your ideas. In the past he has asked the public to send in their ideas. One such idea was to make tripe and pepper soup. Not being so hot on tripe, he gave it a try anyways. He said it was bad…and he “won’t be serving it anytime soon”, but at least he tried it.

I asked Dean what is the best part of running his business. He replied, “working with the staff as they are an excellent bunch of people. They could run this place without me. They do such quality work and yet we can all bust on each other’s chops and have a fun day.” He really enjoys working with the public and chatting with folks. Of course he says, “there are always one or two exceptions and it only takes one bad moment to ruin your day.” But then that is what running a restaurant is all about, give and take. As a father of three and putting them through college, Dean’s Dog’s is sure to stay around for a long time. He said his wife who is a schoolteacher in the Gloversville school district helps him out from time to time and “she is a good sport.”

I asked Dean if he felt there was a career path title in what he does for a living? He replied, “Yes, there is the hospitality business, restaurant business, restaurant owner/manager positions, part time jobs and that area colleges or specialty schools offer good culinary degrees to learn from.” He also said “ this type of job isn’t going to go away because people are always going to eat and it is good for those who don’t want to cook.”

Cooking as a kid as a hobby and now onto a living, Deans says he has no big changes planned. He said, “Change is not always good. Consistency is.” Thank you Dean for our chat and of course, once again, I recommend this restaurant to all.