It's been a while since downtown St. Pete had a veggie hot dog hawker (like, a whole six years). But with the influx of vegan and vegetarian restaurants across the city, St. Pete locals and vegetarians Jeff and Jenny Howe believe now is the right time to roll out their vegan hot dog cart: Nah Dogs.
Nah Dogs aims to attract a clientele of veg-heads and meat-eaters alike.
"We played with the idea for a little while and talked about the idea of it," Jenny says. "I think this town is progressing more towards a vegan and vegetarian lifestyle, so it seemed like a good time to finally do it."
The inspiration for the roving, stainless-steel cart came after the husband-and-wife duo chowed down at downtown Orlando's Vegan Hot Dog Cart. Similar to the popular street food spot in O-Town, they want to offer healthier options to the St. Pete crowd during late nights out, but also sporting events.
"You can't find vegan hot dogs at Tropicana. I've written them several times about them being one of two baseball stadiums in the country that doesn't offer that," Jenny says.
Coming up with a name for Nah Dogs proved to be tedious. The founders went back and forth between a number of ideas before discovering the one randomly.
"We were driving around and kept saying, 'Nah,' to all the other thousand names," Jeff says, "until the name hit us."
Nah Dogs will function as a traditional hot dog stand with all of the toppings one could desire — except the menu is 100-percent vegan and soy-based. Alongside weenies like the Yo Soy Dog covered in street corn salsa, cheese sauce, jalapeño and tortilla chips (most of the links feature some kind of crunch), vegan sausage and chili are on hand, too.
The Howes hope to add gluten-free items later on, but the best part is that everything starts at $5 and won't exceed $10.
"We're going to try and have a special hot dog every week. Start slow and see where we can take it," Jenny says.
Both Jenny and Jeff work full-time jobs — she does home remodeling with her father, while he does aircraft maintenance at Tampa International Airport — so Nah Dogs is a weekends-only business at the moment. They expect to launch the cart toward mid- to late-March.
In the beginning, Nah Dogs will primarily kick off its mobile service around dinnertime at 8 p.m., fulfilling after-hours cravings until 2 a.m. outside of whichever neighborhood breweries, bars or markets welcome them.
The Howes tell CL they've seen St. Pete transform from a sleepy city with nothing but "old people and Applebee's" into a completely different place. According to them, several of their friends operate vegan eateries, and the couple sees how receptive everyone is to meatless grub, even non-vegans.
"You don't really think about the vegan aspect of it," Jeff says. "You can get a vegan cookie, and it's unreal how good they are."
Jenny puts their plan for Nah Dogs simply: "Our ultimate goal for the cart is to have fun and be able to do this as much as we can."
