Hot diggity dogs; Resident makes living off selling hot dogs
The newest place to get a bite to eat in Logan isn’t a restaurant – it’s a white van in the Hastings parking lot.
David Summers, 48, said he has been parking in the lot six days a week for the last three months to sell hot dogs. But the money isn’t exactly rolling in, he said.
“People keep telling me, ‘Wait till summer, it’s going to get better, it’s going to get better,” he said. “I hope it does.”
Summers says if anyone knew his life story, they wouldn’t believe it. When he was 7 years old, he said his grandmother’s car was tipped by a train. That accident left him unable to read or write, he said, and though his family has told him he could read and write before the accident, he can’t remember it. He said when he first came to Logan, he went to the library to try to learn, but to no avail.
Summers said he was taught how to cook by his uncle when he was 13 years old in Phoenix, Ariz., and has been in and out of the restaurant business ever since.
The menu at his hot dog van includes chili dogs, sandwiches, Chicago dogs and more, though he said he can cook anything. He said he learned to make Chicago dogs from a student from Chicago.
After three months in business, Summers said he is starting to pick up some steady customers. One woman comes from Tremonton and buys chili dogs to take back and freeze for later, he said. He said the secret is in the way he cooks his chili: No beans, only meat and vegetables, the way he learned on an Apache reservation in Arizona.
Even opening the van was not easy, he said. He found the van abandoned in a field, bought it and fixed it up.
When he first opened up, he said some businesses in town weren’t happy about it and tried to make him remove the van. But, he has all the right documentation.
It took him about a month to get it ready for inspection, he said, but now he has a business license from the city of Logan and a food handler’s license from the Bear River Health Department.
Summers said he came to Logan in 1993, and ever since he arrived, he’s been unable to leave without anything “weird” happening to him.
“The first time my car got broken into, the second time my car broke down and the third time I got in an accident,” he said. “The only reason I’m staying is because every time I leave, something happens.”
Three years ago, he and a partner were all set to open a restaurant, but he said his partner backed out on him, leaving him in debt. Getting desperate, he said he planned to hitchhike to Florida, work at a fishery for a while and buy a boat to get out of the states.
“I figure there’s some country in the world where I can own a mud shack – own my own house,” he said.
He said he was halfway to Florida when a Chevy Tahoe going 90 miles an hour rear-ended the car he was in, and caused the car to roll three times.
He still suffers from injuries in his back, shoulder and knee, which he said make him unable to hold a steady job. After the accident, he lived in a car in the Wal-Mart parking lot for a few months, living on a disability check.
Summers said he hopes to earn enough money to buy a soft-serve ice cream machine for the summer and possibly sell steamed corn.
Eventually, he wants to open his own restaurant on Main Street.
He spent some time helping others run their restaurants, he said, but became frustrated by their management methods.
He said he still notices others’ mistakes in running their restaurants.
Some would buy cheap food. One owner would buy a chunk of beef and use it for all kinds of orders: steak, ribs or hamburger.
Another ran her business into the ground by micromanaging her employees and not allowing them to have responsibility.
His secret to running a restaurant: “Just provide good service, good food and find employees’ specialized talents,” like cooking breakfast, he said.
He said as of now he is not making enough to make ends meet and hopes warmer weather will bring more customers. He had to move out of his home and is now staying with friends, he said.
Summers said he is planning on making a replica of the flag of the Seventh Cavalry to put on the antennae on his van, because, he said, “I feel like General Custer, waiting for help.”
“God has a sense of humor,” he said. “A sick one, but he has it.”
-ella@cc.usu.edu
(Scott Erickson)