One local bartender is taking matters into his own hands after noticing a lack of late-night food options in the city.
Danny’s Dawgs, a new concept from Danny Ingram, is a mobile cart serving up high-quality, inexpensive takes on American staples (like hot dogs and nachos) all across the city. Ingram came up with the idea when comparing Cincinnati’s nightlife scene to that of Denver’s, where he formerly resided.
“Living here the past couple years, I’ve noticed that everything absolutely dies off at 11 o’clock.” Ingram said. “And you’ve got some late night bars, sure, like Longfellow, Liberty’s or Alice, but it’s not really conducive of somewhere that feels like you’re going to a meeting place or a third space where you kind of know everybody.”
Enter Danny’s Dawgs, where Ingram is bringing back “the late night diner, but we’re bringing it to you.” Wherever Ingram sets up shop, he promises plenty of seating, plenty of good vibes, and plenty of great food.
“We’ve got chairs and Christmas lights and little seats out, places for people to be able to chill and hang out and decompress. Bartenders will get off work and feel like, ‘man, I have to go home by myself.’ There’s a real mental health aspect to that. Now they can go, ‘Oh, there’s a place I can actually go hang out and I’m still going to get to have that social aspect of my life, even if I have the weirdest schedule in the world,'” he said.
The menu at Danny’s isn’t reinventing the wheel, but it sure features more interesting fare than your usual late-night spots. Sure, you can get a plain all-beef hot dog on a potato roll for $5 with toppings of your choice like onions, sauerkraut or pickles — but why would you do that when you can try ‘The Hot Box,’ a hot dog with nacho cheese, jalapenos and crushed-up Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, or ‘The K-Hole,’ which features kimchi, kewpie mayo and sesame seeds, for just $7 each?
You can upgrade each dog to a Queen City smoked hot mett for a dollar extra, if you so choose. And if you’re really feeling hungry, order ‘The Big Dawg,’ which features 12 inches of thick all-beef on a footlong bun for less than $10. Plenty of bottled sodas — like Mexican Coca-Cola, IBC Root Beer and Squirt — are on hand, alongside side items like Zapp’s Voodoo chips, all of which can be had for just $2 a pop. Other classic staples (like nachos) are on the menu, too.
“We’re not trying to be anything flashy. We’re just trying to focus on quality. You know, we have a larger size hot dog than most. We chose a larger bun length. We chose a little bit thicker meat. We don’t want anybody to feel like they’re skimped in any way, and if anything, we’d rather take a small cut in order to build community,” Ingram said. “I really don’t care about hot dogs, but I care a lot about people, and we think that makes a better hot dog.”
The mobile diner concept also has its roots in Denver, where Ingram was active in both the art and stand-up comedy scenes. Almost daily, he’d visit a hot dog cart in the park where he could get a full meal with a great hot dog for under $10.
“I’d always tell the guy there, ‘man, you’re a genius. Like you’re living the life.’ And he was like, ‘Dude, this is the best decision I ever made.’ And it stuck in my head,” he said. “And in Denver, late night is kinda the main thing. You get out of the comedy show at 1 a.m. and go to a 24-hour diner and hang out with other comics and artists. Here, it feels like the artists almost get stifled because everything shuts down too early. So we’re just trying to mix the two.”
On the surface, Danny’s Dawgs is already a roaring success. Before he even served a single hot dog, Ingram sold out of his merch line. Already, he’s linked up with his friends at New Richmond Tavern for a residency in the early afternoon and evenings, which launched last Thursday night to much fanfare.
He’s also started up a weekly late-night food program behind Bar Saeso in Over-the-Rhine. Currently, the city of Cincinnati restricts food vendors to closing down at 1 a.m. if they aren’t set up on private property, but he hopes that the cart gets enough recognition for the city to “hopefully start to allow street food to be a little bit easier.”
In the future, he plans to expand the concept even farther. His next immediate goals are to expand the number of carts he has, in hopes of capitalizing on events like Opening Day, and to expand the menu to feature different items at different times of the day, like breakfast burritos. But mostly, he wants to provide a place for the community to gather at all hours—bartenders or otherwise.
“Even outside of the industry, we hope plenty of other people show up too. We hope that we’re people’s first date. We’re creating a nostalgic, fun, different experience. But, at the same time, you’re not spending 50 bucks or doing anything crazy,” he said. “We’re more interested in creating the space to have the memory than creating the memory itself.”
For more information on Danny’s Dawgs, including where to find the cart on a nightly basis, visit the official Instagram page.
