Fayetteville's most popular hot dog stand is planning a restaurant and food truck stop
Mike and Jennifer Adams of Dogslingers plan to turn a 1940s Fayetteville building into a lunch and late-night restaurant, bodega and food truck hub.
Located at 2801 Raeford Road, the 2,400-square-foot squat brick building was formerly Blackstone Smokehouse & Pub, and before that, New China Restaurant.
It will soon be outfitted with a walk-up window and dining room, where the couple will serve the same Chicago-style sandwiches and hot dogs that popularized their food trailer.
Customers will also find Midwestern staples like the open-face horseshoe sandwiches that originate from Jennifer Adams' hometown of Springfield, Illinois, as well as the fried pork tenderloin sandwich that originated in early 1900s in Indiana and remains popular today, and loose meat sandwiches like those found in Iowa.
For transplanted midwesterners, those items are a nostalgic taste of home.
“We’ve had people literally moved to tears when they take bites of things,” Adams said.
They also plan to serve salads and deli case grab-and-go options, and the hearty soups Adams often cooked for her now-adult children as they were growing up.
Related: Fayetteville's food and dining scene: What's new and changing this fall?
In contrast to their menu chockful of favorites from America's heartland, a small store in the front of the shop will offer distinctly local produce, meat, eggs and pantry items from area farms, she said.
Beyond all that the Adamses have in store for the location, they will also offer the kitchen to serve as a commissary for up to 10 food trucks, who may host menu takeovers at the restaurant and serve customers from the parking lot, Mike Adams said. Monthly food truck rodeo-style events are on the horizon, too, he said.
Related: About 25% of Fayetteville-area food trucks closed last year. What's next?
Slated to open in the spring, they’re calling the new venture The Depot. The name, meaning a place where troops are assembled, references the couple’s military connection. Mike Adams spent two decades in the Army and Jennifer Adams comes from a military family.
She said the restaurant and food truck spot will be a place for people to refuel, gather with friends, and even make new ones.
Adams recalled a moment when two men in line at Dogslingers discovered they grew up a block away from one another. They spent nearly an hour talking in the parking lot, she said.
“We want it to be just as much about the food as it is about the connections that are made when people are here,” Adams said. “It’s not about what we’re doing, it’s about the space we’re providing.”
Food, dining and culture reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com, on Twitter, or Facebook. Want weekly food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Fayetteville Foodies newsletter.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Fayetteville hot dog stand Dogslingers to open The Depot restaurant
