How to make a $15 hot dog: a Primrose Lanes-prompted primer

“We sold 103 hot dogs on Friday,” Jason Campbell tells me.

It’s an impressive feat for the executive chef of Primrose Lanes, which only opened to the public on Aug. 4, a phenomenon initiated by a single Facebook post made the same day lamenting the housemade dog’s $15 price tag.

“Okay. I am actually genuinely shocked,” the post’s author wrote. “I usually keep this stuff to myself, but $20 for a hot dog and fries… I don’t care how artisnal [sic] you make that, there is no way. This is what they did to Colonial Lanes. I’d honestly rather they had torn it down….”

That’s how it began.

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And while many came out in support of this sentiment, the thread of which meandered into a host of topics, including Orlando’s stagnant wages and high rents, gentrification and growing class divide — along with the fact that one can still get a hot dog for $1.50 at Costco — others defended the dog’s price, basing much of their argument on the work that goes into an “elevated” hot dog and the cost of its high-quality ingredients.

“Dennys has cheap steaks. Why even go to Ruth Chris or Christeners? (sic) some people appreciate the quality of food they eat and are willing to pay the cost difference to not eat trashy food. This is the case here, it’s not a microwaved hot dog they are serving for $15. It’s a high quality delicious hot dog that took three days to make,“ said one supporter.

But there were counters.

“…you’re dumber than rocks if you think paying $20 for a hot dog and fries is normal. I don’t care how organic it is or how “in house made” it is; it’s still over priced (sic) and that is BAD for the area.”

Back and forth it went, on forums and personal pages, feeding the hype, fueling the demand.

Ten days and several amusing memes later, the Primrose Lanes hot dog had its own T-shirt in the pro shop. A version topped with smoked trout caviar — “a buddy requested it,” Campbell tells me — sparked multiple orders after it was posted on social media (that’s $5 extra, by the way). And Campbell, hoarse and weary from the formidable stressors of opening a brand-new establishment, was proud of his team after the surprise surge in their first days open.

“We have all taken it in stride and had a blast,” he said.

It is curious, though, the general public’s shock over prices that, while not “discount,” aren’t wildly out of line alongside some other menus.

A Mochinut hot dog (deep-fried Korean corn dogs on a stick) can go as high as $7.25. Cupid’s Vienna beef basics sell for between $5.75 and $7.25 (cheese, sauerkraut or Chicago toppings garner an upcharge).The topped foot-longs at Casey’s Corner, a hot dog restaurant inside the Magic Kingdom sell for between $12.29 and $15.29 sans sides. None of these weens are crafted on premises.

Heck, I paid $8 for a regular-sized dog and a sparse handful of fries at the Oviedo Bowl last weekend and enjoyed every bite, but there wasn’t one thing on my plate, save a few slivers of red onion, that didn’t come out of a package.

“People don’t know what goes into it,” a chef acquaintance opined after hitting up Primrose to taste what all the fuss was about. “You should tell them.”

I’ve never made a hot dog from scratch, but Matt Hinckley of Hinckley’s Fancy Meats does it often and sells them out of his case at East End Market. So, I asked him.

“Hot dogs are an emulsified sausage. The forcemeat is ground to a paste, which is usually done with a buffalo chopper.”

This is a $5,000 piece of equipment but all the tech in the world won’t help if the meat isn’t kept at near-freezing temperatures. Otherwise, “you wind up with a grainy or mealy texture.”

After that, you need a smoker.

“And a device, either built-in or external, to monitor both the internal temperature of the sausage and the ambient smoker temp,” says Hinckley. Price tag on either: roughly another $5K.

“After that, the hot dogs usually go into a steamer. It’s expensive, but you can cheat it with a boil.”

Now we have what we need to make the hot dogs, but what goes into these tony tube steaks?

“Spices, meats, casings, a nicer bun, the wood to smoke them,” Campbell rattles off. “We get charged a fuel delivery for every order we place, sometimes even a fee if we don’t reach a minimum,” he points out.

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And what of the meats? “Certified Angus. Ribeye, short rib, brisket and chuck in a lamb casing.”

Not the stuff of $1.50 Costco dogs.

Those used to be Hebrew National, by the way, but according to a recent piece by Yahoo Finance, “in 2008, the big-box store built its own hot dog factories, reducing production costs and thereby keeping the $1.50 deal intact.

The same story details that while the hot dog-soda price remains static, those elsewhere in the store have soared, along with profits. Mind you, you’re also paying between $60 and $120 annually for the pleasure of walking in the door.

“Commodity hot dogs are cheap because they use ‘advanced meat recovery systems,’” Hinckley tells me. Brace yourself because that is precisely as gross as it sounds.

“[These machines] blast animal carcasses that have already had the good parts removed with a high-pressure CO2 jet. These scraps are then processed with big industrial machinery, a lot of additives, preservatives, smoke-flavoring agents, fillers, etc. It’s a trash can for the big players.”

The hot dog at Primrose, Hinckley speculates, is a labor of love.

“Butchery and sausage making is a little bit of a lost art. People will pay good money for a handmade leather wallet or a piece of furniture, but I feel that’s gotten lost in food today,” Campbell opines, noting that one can grab a machine-made charcuterie board at the supermarket.

“The role of a chef is to source and provide the best products for their guests to provide an experience that is different from the next spot down the street. Part of what we do is art, and food is our expression.”

Mind you, says a direct Hinckley, “A cook who won’t f*ck this up is very hard to find …. When was the last time you or anyone you knew tried to make hot dogs from scratch at home? Does any butcher in Orlando even sell scratch hot dogs?”

Eliot Hillis and Seth Parker of the now-defunct Orlando Meats used to. Not anymore.

“It’s a dying craft. The people who put in the time to learn it … deserve the little bit extra. If there’s one thing I look for when dining out, it’s effort. How much work would it take to make this at home?”

“Fifteen dollars is fair,” Hinckley surmised. “And I’d be surprised, quite frankly, if they’re even making money.”

When I reposted my photo of the hot dog in the wake of the social media storm, one friend opined that such prices were unsustainable.

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“If it’s on the menu, it’s sustainable,” says Hinckley. “You can put your dreams on that paper, but if it doesn’t sell … it must be replaced. There’s no room for your feelings here. It’s basic business.”

Campbell says it’s been fun and interesting to watch the debate and greatly appreciates the support from the community in the wake of the hubbub.

“I never knew a hot dog could bring us such attention,” he says, chuckling. “Hopefully, it blows over soon so the other items on the menu can get some love, too!”

Primrose Lanes: 400 N. Primrose Drive in Orlando; 407-745-0862; primroselanes.com

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