For nearly 80 years, late-night partiers on Bourbon Street have drunkenly staggered to Lucky Dog carts stationed in the heart of New Orleans for an ultra-processed American delicacy dripping with chili and relish.
The French Quarter is packed with bastions of haute cuisine, from the James Beard Award-winning Jewel of the South to the world famous Brennan’s. But despite its many culinary accolades, Lucky Dogs has been a staple that’s sold over 21 million hot dogs since 1947. It was even the inspiration behind the fictitious Paradise Vendors stand in John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces.”
In recent years, its popularity has expanded beyond New Orleans, with carts landing in Baton Rouge, Hammond and now, its first out-of-state venture in Mississippi.
Buoys Bar, a local hotspot on the beach in Bay St. Louis, announced on social media last month that Lucky Dogs is serving on their boardwalk, earning a thumbs-up on Facebook from the city’s mayor, Carnival krewe and shopping district.
The expansion shows that the American desire for hasty service and cheap prices goes beyond the bustling locations where hot dog stands predominately thrive, like New York City and Chicago. The classic dish doesn’t cater to a specific clientele, landing in the hands of more than just revelers scrounging for a bite to eat past midnight.
In 2002, New Orleans’ unpredictable former mayor Ray Nagin snacked on a Lucky Dog while crammed in an elevator in the World Trade Center near Canal Street. Fifteen years later, NBC News broadcasted an image of Sean Payton eating one while sitting in the coaches booth during a Saints football game.
Founder Steve Loyacano created Lucky Dogs with the intent of selling a fast food that would satisfy anyone’s hunger pangs. It dawned on him that while the French Quarter is overflowing with chic restaurants, it also has its fair share of bars. And after a night of heavy drinking, people crave a quick bite to eat, rather than a five-course meal.
“In real life, Paradise Hot Dogs are Lucky Dogs,” a Times-Picayune reporter wrote in 1981. “Tube steaks for the hungry. A bacchanal for the drunken. Nectar for the Bourbon Street beehive. Hot dogs fresh from the womb of the mother ship.”
Outside of serving a nationally-loved food, Lucky Dogs’ branding attracted a cascading line of customers everyday, especially at the 1984 World Fair, when the 7-foot cart was replaced with a lengthier one made from sheet metal.
The company debuted its 10-foot long cart, shaped like a hot dog with mustard-drizzled sausage cradled in a bun, designed by another local shop. Dressed in striped smocks and paper hats, vendors would push the cart to the corner of Bienville and Bourbon, where they occasionally hawked their wares.
Jim and Patsy Bonner grab some Lucky Dogs in a 1977 photo. The Lucky Dog company revamped its iconic carts in 1984 ahead of the World’s Fair.
“Most people’s attention was attracted to the carts,” Loyacano admitted in a 1981 interview, “But I like to think we put out a good product, too.”
The product is, in fact, just as unforgettable as the branding, outliving a catalogue of local institutions — Schwegmann’s, K&B, McKenzie’s — that did not stand the test of time.
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