Lucky Dog Man

All visitors to the New Orleans French Quarter are familiar with the brightly colored Lucky Dog hot dog vendors. Shown here is a salesman patiently... more

by Cheri Randolph

Title

Lucky Dog Man

Artist

Cheri Randolph

Medium

Photograph

Description

All visitors to the New Orleans French Quarter are familiar with the brightly colored "Lucky Dog" hot dog vendors. Shown here is a salesman patiently awaiting the next sale. Many readers of "A Confederacy of Dunces" are also familiar with the carts, for the main character, Ignatius J. Reilly, was a Lucky Dog Vendor working for Paradise Vendors, Inc.

It was not long after World War II that brothers Stephen and Erasmus Loyacano first wheeled their unique vending carts out onto the streets of the Crescent City. By 1949, the brothers decided to market the popular invention. They attended a national convention, and when hundreds of delegates asked for information, the brothers decided to forget about sales and go into leasing or franchising. An advertisement touted the potential for investors: "Cruise the midway. Get around town. You and Lucky Dog follow the crowd." "A red hot steam job that will roll up profits everywhere you go." "Steam cooks 100 dogs, buns, and chili. Stores everything for 300 more." "A fleet of eight carts now successfully operating in New Orleans." But like many entrepreneurs, they encountered problems, and by 1952 gave up on the franchising idea. In fact, after 23 years of steaming wienies and buns, the Loyacanos sold the business.

The new owners were Doug Talbot and Peter Briant, who purchased Lucky Dogs Novelty Carts Inc. in 1970. Its original location was 1304 St. Charles Ave. Can you imagine pushing a fully loaded 7-foot-long hot dog cart from there to the French Quarter!

Before the company was put up for sale, new health restrictions prevented it from steaming its dogs and buns right in the special carts. Instead, they had to sell a precooked and prepackaged product. You don't want to know how these tasted.

This new requirement was a factor in the sale of the company and almost caused it to fail entirely. But the board of health finally agreed to a sneeze guard and a fancy hand-washing system, the company went back to its old way of cooking, and Fortuna smiled on Lucky Dogs.

Since then, Lucky Dogs Inc. has become a New Orleans tradition and achieved international fame. And in 1998, New Orleanian Jerry Strahan wrote a wonderfully funny book about his years of experience as Lucky dog vendor and manager entitled Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in the Quarter. You'll love it!

Uploaded

May 11th, 2012