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NY vendor offers hot dogs at 1929 price After 75 years of selling "the best hot dogs in the world" from the same roadside stand, Mickey diFate thinks strained squash is a poor substitute. Especially when the wieners are three for a dime.
So when Craig Rosenberg decided against ordering franks for his year-old twins Friday, spoon-feeding them baby food instead during the 75th-anniversary celebration at Mickey's Snack Bar, diFate, who is 96, took umbrage.
"So what if they're only a year old?" he barked. "That's the perfect time to introduce them to hot dogs!"
He should know. DiFate, whose family had a grocery store in Yonkers and sold homegrown vegetables at a roadside stand, added hot dogs to the offerings in 1929 and has run his business in the same spot off Jackson Avenue ever since, except during his World War II service with the Marines, when his wife took over. He now operates out of his "new" trailer, purchased in 1971.
The trailer, as well as diFate, his late wife and two daughters, are pictured on the postcards he was signing and giving away to his customers on Friday.
His season begins every April 1 and runs until December. To celebrate the anniversary, diFate is selling three hot dogs for 10 cents, just as he did in 1929, through Sunday. He said he expects to go through 15,000 franks if the weekend weather is good.
On Friday, customers began arriving by 10:15 a.m., 45 minutes before he opened, and even with three friends helping out, the line to the hot dog window was never shorter than 12 people — and that was before the lunchtime rush.
DiFate, whose short stature serves him sell in the cramped trailer, expertly grabbed cooked hot dogs from a hot water tank, forked them into buns, dabbed them with mustard and shoveled them into cardboard boxes, adding cans of Pepsi for good measure. Some customers tried to pay more than a dime, throwing dollar bills into the box that served as a cash register, but diFate wasn't really insisting on any payment at all.
Some of the customers had come to take advantage of the old-time prices, but most were regulars who said they'd have been there anyway.
"If it wasn't really good, I wouldn't be here even if he was giving them away, which I guess he is," said Eileen Brooks of Yonkers as she waited for her hot dogs. "I think it's amazing, unbelievable that he's still doing this at 96. God bless him."
Joseph Popovic, 64, who works for the Yonkers Highway Department, said, "My mother and father started bringing me here when I was nine, and then later I got to know Mickey through our children so it's all in the family now. I've brought my children here and now it's time for my grandson. He's 3. I might be back here tomorrow.
"You know, Mickey makes the best chili dogs."
Actually, for the duration of the dime special, mustard was the only condiment available. But soon diFate will be offering chili, onion sauce, cheese and relish as toppings and adding french fries to the menu.
"Used to be, when my wife was alive, we did pizza and ice cream and eggs and burgers and everything," diFate says. "I guess I'm slowing down."
He said hot dogs haven't changed much over the decades but laughs at the idea that people now want to wash them down with bottled water.
"In 1929 we only served little bottles of orange soda," he said. "If you'd asked me for water then, I would have sent you across the street to the spring."
Though his six children are all past middle age and unlikely to succeed him in the hot dog business, diFate is confident that one of his 22 grandchildren or seven great-grandchildren will keep the roadside stand in the family.
Asked if the business was profitable, diFate said, "I'm not telling you. What, you want me to go to jail?" "There'll be something here when I'm gone," he said. "I own this little piece of land, you know. And I don't need any advertising. People already know where to come to get their hot dogs." |
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