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.
