ODESSA, Texas (AP) — Bert Martin, hoping to get a loan, sat down and handed over his business plan to the banker.
The banker read the sheet of paper and took issue with only one part, at the very top. It was Martin's goal: To make the best hot dog possible.
"He reads that and goes, 'Aww, a hot dog is just a hot dog,' " Martin recalled. "I said, 'Oh, no, there's good hot dogs and there's bad hot dogs — I don't plan on selling bad ones.'"
Martin got the loan and in March 2007 opened Texas Style Hot Dogs, a stand he sets up either in the Family Dollar parking lot on Andrews Highway or in the Bicycles Etc. parking lot on West 10th Street.
Under the yellow canopy — mustard yellow, Martin insists — he serves them up. In demand is the specialty: the Texas-style hot dog. It's a quarter-pound beef frank with chili, cheese, jalapeno mustard and his homemade relish, which has jalapeno and habanero chili ingredients.
"It's a hot dog with a bite to it," Martin said. "It's a hot dog with true Texas style."
With his red-and-white collared shirt and hat, both with the company's name and a graphic of a hot dog holding a jalapeno, this all looks exactly like Martin's style.
But that wasn't always the case.
For about 15 years, he was an office manager at a law firm in Dallas. It was getting old.
"I was baby-sitting over 100 attorneys, and I just got burnt out on it," Martin said.
And for many Fourth of July weekends, he and his friends would go south to Granbury, where they ate hot dogs and watched hot dog eating contests.
In 2005, he joked to his friends he was going to quit the firm and start a hot dog business.
"About a month later," Martin said, "I was thinking about it and checking it out on the Web and said, 'Well, I think I will. I think I will quit the law firm and start selling hot dogs.'"
He did and spent the following year researching and buying equipment. An Odessa High graduate, he moved back to Odessa in early 2007 knowing that people here like hot dogs differently than they do in, say, New York.
Jerry Simms, of Odessa, recently tried a hot dog at Martin's stand for the first time. He got it loaded with chili, cheese, onions and sauerkraut and gave it the dirty napkin wave of approval.
"It's the beef," Simms said, explaining why he liked it.
Simms lucked out by getting there in front of Family Dollar a little before 1:30 p.m. and getting the last hot dog. Martin sets up at 10 a.m., has the hot dogs ready at 11 a.m. and is typically sold out at around 1:30 p.m.
It is a short day, Martin makes his own hours, and he is his own boss.
It is much different than the law firm, and though no one has claimed that it is the best hot dog in the world, he says people come from Kermit and Andrews and Midland to grab a hot dog for lunch.
And Texas Style Dogs has a MySpace page listing where it will set up shop.
Not bad for a guy who says that hot dogs are not necessarily his favorite food.
But that's not the important thing, he said.
What is important?
"I know a good hot dog from a bad hot dog."
Features
March 18, 2009
Odessa man dishes up franks with a Texas twist
- Features
-
- Teacher gets $1,000 in supplies
- Television pushy with food and products
-
Chicken lickin' good recipe
OK, I’m gonna admit it. I don’t like this 100-degree-plus weather. I don’t want to cook, I don’t want to go outside until the sun goes down, in fact, if I go somewhere and it’s not cool inside, I won’t stay.
This past weekend, Jim and I went to a get together of a group of friends. It was super cool inside, so I relaxed and did what I do best. Talk! - Entrepreneur seeks algae-to-fuel conversion key BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — And God said, "Let there be light: and there was light," according to the Book of Genesis, although He might have added, "especially in South Texas."
- Don't bank on weekend to make up for sleep loss WASHINGTON (AP) — Sleeping in on Saturday after a few weeks of too little shuteye may feel refreshing, but it can give a false sense of security.
- Buckle up! Kid films getting better at safety CHICAGO (AP) — Characters in children's movies are wising up about personal safety, increasingly using seat belts, bike helmets and crosswalks, but many still aren't ideal role models, a government study found.
- From Wild West to modern rodeo, the look is new DENVER (AP) — Thousands of cowboys and cowgirls will be decked out in their Western finery at the National Western Stock Show in Denver this month. But if an original cowboy from the late 1800s somehow stumbled in, would he recognize anybody?
- Retirees find that it's never too late to learn DENTON, Texas (AP) — Elsie Griffith, 84, is taking English — and 15 other courses — this fall at UNT. She commutes practically every weekday between her home and the Denton campus.
- The decade in travel: Technology and terrorism NEW YORK (AP) — Remember getting through an airport without removing your shoes, dumping your water bottle or showing ID?
- Beat goes on at landmark Texas record store SAN MARCOS, Texas (AP) — Before there was hip-hop, before there was hair metal and grunge rock, before there was iTunes, there was Sundance.
- More Features Headlines
Beryl Makes Landfall on Florida Coast
UN Blames Syrian Forces for Shelling Houla
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
