My First Day with a hot dog cart!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was GREAT to finally be behind the hot dog cart!!!

It’s about freakin’ time!

Some general ramblings about my day:

My day went pretty well. Just like last Saturday when I worked the tent and grill setup, I awoke to a damned thunderstorm, and that hurt my event pretty hard.

I got set up, with pretty much no problems. I have some leakage from my sinks, but thats nothing that some caulk can’t take care of. The damn water that comes from the faucet is HOT!

I got my burners fired up early so I could get my water hot, but I did not put my steam pans in first. Oops. I won’t do that again. Rather than turn off the burners and put the pans in like a normal person, I had to put them in with the burners on.

I set my steam table up with a full pan for hold and a half pan for cooking. I put the metal plate directly between the burners and had a small pan for my tongs on the side. It worked out pretty well.

I have a few questions at this point…

— I hope I don’t sound stupid, but I would occasionally splash some of my cook water onto the plate and make steam and generate yummy hot dog smells as people walk by. Is that weird?

— Do I dump the juice from the hot dogs into my cook water? I did. I hope nobody died.

— This is the order I went in… I would take the customers order, put their bun on the hot plate (in between the burners), then take their money. I would give them their change, then sanitize my hands. Then I would flip the bun, get their drink and chips, and get their dog dressed and delivered. I am being backward?

Back to jabbering. The Jones Sodas are VERY popular with young people. Even the the food cost is harsh I think it was a great idea to carry them.

For the second time I cut 8 times as many onions as I need. I donated them to the Papa Johns I work at.

Thats a great point too. Having my gig at Papa Johns works out great. I washed all my stuff in those big 3 compartment sinks, and I can borrow anything I want and used the hose, connected to the hot water, to give the cart a soaking.

Let me ask this. I never really hosed the cart down since it was delivered, and it need it, but now that I have it clean, how do you experienced folks recommend I keep it 1) clean? 2)keep it in good shape?

My cart builder told me to spray to down with WD-40 very frequently, especially all the hinges. Is this good advice?

I think thats all I know for now.

My total take for the day was just a tad over 150 bucks with a profit of about 90 bucks. I’ll take it.