Original subtitles

[bell dinging]

[rock music]

- [Male] What's going on Doug?

- Not so much, how 'bout yourself?

- [Male] Sorry about that, I had to get all this done.

- No problem.

I always think

to get one of those bill counters

but then I thought it'd be too much like Scarface.

I don't know if I could pull off the accent.

We're all set, thank you sir.

Going to, last Sunday, going to the art institute

to see the Magritte show

and then later that night going to Steppenwolf to see a play

meanwhile stopping having a late tapas lunch.

It's like you can't do that in Fargo.

And it's one of the reasons,

one of the things I love about Chicago

and sports,

real, for the most part major league sports teams.

There's usually at least one of the five

that are doing well at any one time.

[upbeat music]

The real intention of opening up the restaurant,

one was to make a better Chicago hot dog.

When it's done well,

I think it's truly one of the great sandwiches.

What I found in going to so many different hot dog stands

was rarely was it done well.

Most hot dog stands were now selling pizza puffs

and chicken breast sandwiches and burgers

and so the hot dog sort of slid down the menu.

And if you're gonna do that,

if you're not gonna sell a lot of hot dogs

the only way to make money on them

is to use cheaper ingredients

including you can buy bad hot dogs,

you can buy bad mustard,

you can not do it properly.

So I wanted to restore the reputation

of the Chicago hot dog

and to have a place where you could get

all the different kinds of sausages available.

So that was really the impetus for opening Hot Doug's.

[upbeat music]

- My friend Marco Silva,

who worked with me at Charlie Trotter's back in the day,

he said, "Have you heard of this guy

"doing moose and armadillo and all this stuff?"

I'm like what, who's doing that?

Even at a high end restaurant, that would be out there.

But he's charging six bucks for this

and Marco's like no I got to go there.

So I wait a year and I went there with him

and immediately my mind was blown, I couldn't believe it.

It was easily the most delicious bun experience

I've ever had.

It took it to a new level.

I wasn't even into hot dogs until then.

Hot dogs you think of as like oh you shouldn't eat that,

that's bad for you

but then you go into Doug's place

and he's got red wine braised

I don't know some crazy French meat

with foie gras and all this

and I'm like wow, this is gourmet,

this is inspiring.

- Hot Doug's was the first

decent eating in this neighborhood.

Someone who'd never had duck for example,

is now eating duck with sauternes and foie gras.

What an amazing way to wake up the palettes

of an entire city.

That so many people who are chefs

or restaurateurs or whatever in Chicago,

so many of those people

would rate Hot Doug's

as one of the best dining experiences in Chicago.

Game knows game, they can tell.

- I used to go there with Graham Elliot Bowls.

A lot of chefs go there with other chefs

because it's like a religious right,

going to Mecca for hot dogs and it's right here.

You don't have to travel far, easy to get to.

There's a Mecca for each style of cuisine.

For Japanese, I could say it's hero in Japan.

For French it would be Paul Bocuse.

Everybody has to cook at the Beard House

and if you don't go to Hot Doug's

you missed the quintessential forced meat experience,

that's what you've missed out on.

[upbeat music]

- [Doug] It's mostly the game of

trying to leave letters I want still up there.

Your restaurant is only as good

as the employees in it.

That's your best asset.

When you cease caring about them,

then you got problems

and what I would notice

is that those employees were there for awhile.

Some of those guys were there for years.

You don't work in any hot dog joint.

You're working in a fast food restaurant

and there's dedication with these guys.

If you're a nice guy to your customers,

you should be as nice to your staff

and I think Doug really exemplified that.

You could tell by the way he talked to 'em,

by the way they listened.

They just tried to do a better and better job.

If you're always replacing people,

if they're always coming and going,

it's very difficult to maintain any consistency.

And so consistency is key

with what Doug was doing.

If you order a char dog,

whether it's got Camembert cheese or whatever it is on it,

it's got to have that same char.

You have to have one guy that does that.

- My job over here is I make all the sauces,

I make the sauces

and I prepare some stuff, some extra stuff.

He has his own recipes.

So he told me how I have to do it

and he has to taste,

he taste every sauce that I make

and he has to approve if it's good or not.

- That's awesome.

- Just like that?

- Just like that.

- Okay sir.

- Yeah 'cause I'm just trying to think.

Honestly if you want to add a little more beer.

- [Lalo] One more?

- Yeah.

- One more beer? - As long as it doesn't

get too thin,

that's all I care about now is the consistency.

A little bit more beer will be great.

- Okay sir, let's get one more.

- [Doug] Thank you sir.

- So [speaking in foreign language] .

There's like five of them.

When we're out of those,

we switch to the Iberico.

- The cooks have been with me not quite day one

but all four hired

within the first year and a half to two years of opening

and have stayed with me since then

which is rare in this business.

I'm incredibly grateful

and as much as the kudos

that I get for running the restaurant

none of it happens without them.

It allows me to focus on the customer,

it allows me to focus on the menu.

It allows me to do the things that I need to do

to make it successful.

I don't have to worry

about what's going on behind me.

I know those guys have it down.

It sometimes catches me off guard

how much they know what's going on front of the house.

They know the regulars now,

how crazy Saturdays are versus other days

and are prepared for that.

They have been in order of hiring,

Octavio, Carlos, Lalo and Benjamin have been awesome.

- I started eating at Hot Doug's

in the first year that it opened.

Back then I ran a magazine called Punk Planet Magazine

and we were working on an issue

that was entirely about Chicago.

It was our 50th issue

and we decided to do a theme

about the place we were.

And I was actually driving back

from another interview up Roscoe

and saw Doug's and was like,

that looks like a cool place.

I'm gonna stop in, I'm hungry, grab something to eat.

And I walked in and the Buzzcocks were playing

and Doug was Doug

and I called up my wife and was like,

I'm gonna be late 'cause I've got to do an interview

with this guy for the issue.

[upbeat music]

- Thank you.

Wow, this is exciting.

Hello, hello.

- Good morning. - Are you Doug?

- Are you a cop? - Can I shake your hand?

- You can shake my hand.

- I've never been here before.

- What's up with that?

I've been standing here for 14 years waiting for you.

Ah, it's alright, we'll let you slide.

All set for me?

- Yes.

I think I'll have the foie gras.

- [Doug] You got it.

- The smoked--

- You know you really don't have to point. I know where they are,

I put them there myself, that's the alligator.

Right off the bat.

Make it count.

- Bowl of-- - Bowl of chili, nice.

- I got a lot of good recommendations about that. - [Doug] Absolutely.

- I got to get the duck fat fries.

- [Doug] Yes you do.

- I was treated just the same

as all of the other customers.

That's the one thing that I loved about it.

Graham Elliot would get the same treatment

that the guy that only had five bucks would get.

The same customized, that's the importance

of having Doug there every day, customer service.

- The Andouille sausage, is that the hottest one you got?

- [Doug] No, the atomic bomb is the hottest.

- Okay I'll stay with the Andouille sausage.

- [Doug] We recommend dark mustard,

caramelized onion, pickle.

- Done, got to learn if from the man.

- [Doug] There we go, now I got to go get a man.

For here or to go?

- Oh that's for here.

- [Doug] Do you want me to wrap up the vegetarian?

- Yes please.

- [Doug] Got it, no problem.

Anything to drink for you? - And then we might have to--

- [Doug] You know what, you got here at five o'clock in the morning,

I'll buy you a drink. - No, get out of here, I have a water bottle.

- [Doug] You can do that too.

That's everything?

- Yeah.

- [Doug] And your first name? - Kip, K-I-P.

- [Doug] You got it, my friend.

$59.50 Kip.

- [Kip] Yes, I brought just enough cash.

- [Doug] Yeah we have a hood system

that could still use a cleaning.

We would've worked something out, no problem.

- That's right, that's right.

- Help yourselves to waters,

please have a seat, we'll bring it out in just a little bit.

Thanks so much, appreciate it.

You can't beat places on price,

you can't beat places on convenience,

you can't beat places on speed

but you can treat people better.

The only way for a small independent business

to compete against a franchise or a big time restaurant

or any retail establishment is customer service.

I understand.

What are you gonna do?

- [Male] It's Hollywood.

- Exactly.

Was it touch and go there prior to now?

- Yeah it was a little touch and go.

- [Doug] Alright fair enough.

You were tired, tired.

I've been standing here for 14 years,

I got your tired, I win.

I just like that part.

Pretty soon I think it's just gonna be that,

no actual fist bump, just a little bit of that.

- French fries?

- [Doug] No, oh is that what that is? Oh I did not know that.

I'm gonna miss the learning.

What'll it be?

87.

80, 20, 40, 60, thank you guys.

Thank you so much for waiting.

We genuinely appreciate it.

Lamb, shrimp please.

- I think one of the most powerful and compelling

things about this place is just the vibe, the atmosphere,

the fact that when you order your food,

you're talking to Doug,

you're talking to hot Doug.

- How are you today?

- Hi.

Can I get a wild boar sausage?

- What'll it be?

- Alright, so I'm gonna do a regular Chicago style dog.

- How are you today?

- [Male] Good, how are you?

- Not so bad, thank you for asking.

What will it be?

- The apple and cinnamon, the foie gras,

the Castanet, and the escargot

and then two orders of the duck fries

and extra cheese yeah.

- [Doug] And for you?

- You can't take everything so seriously

and that's what he was really good at.

The Britney Spears on the walls and the Elvis thing

and you're listening to Whitney Houston.

It's just fun.

Everything makes sense and it works right.

It just gets more extreme, extreme Doug

and I think that's what makes it,

it's his restaurant.

There's nothing else like that.

[upbeat music]

- He takes every order,

he controls the system

knowing how much food goes out.

There's a lot of reasons why he does it

but I think he himself and his personality.

He talks with people,

he makes them feel important.

It's just the music,

it's the environment,

it's the personality.

I think it's lightning in a bottle.

[upbeat music]

- It is really cool to see

how excited people get for a restaurant.

Like they've been waiting for hours

and then they come in and I'll bring out the order

and several times throughout the day

people will cheer when I say their name

and they're so excited to get some fries and hot dogs.

- [Male] A salute.

- [Steve] Y mas, alright, I have pepitas con queso uno y dos

because it makes it sound fancier.

I've got a veal.

- [Male] Yeah veal.

- [Steve] Then I've got a--

- You would get somebody just coming out

and describing your hot dog, a food runner.

Oh this is your hot dog with this and this and this

and I'm going, damn I just feel like I just dined at L2O.

Somebody just gave me a description of a gourmet dish.

I think that's great.

And that all stems from Doug.

- [Steve] Duck fries

there's the Chicago dog, the veal, the tubin

and the foie gras, extra fry.

- He said can we do some different sausages?

I go we can try.

I think we started with the atomic bomb.

I'm sure that was one of our very first ones.

We just gave it a shot,

we went crazy with it.

We started putting real peppers,

not dehydrated stuff.

And it took off like a rocket and we got crazy

and from fruits to certain herbs and spices

and vegetables, peppers

and a lot of fun, lot of creativity there.

- The thing is Doug is so reliable,

it wouldn't be on the menu

if it wasn't delicious.

So you could literally just stick a pen in the map

and then whatever you ended up with is gonna be great.

- What'll it be?

- Can I have cheese port sausage?

- The velveeta.

- [Doug] Got it.

- The lamb and pork belly.

- [Doug] Got it.

- Port cheese.

- I want the foie gras.

- [Doug] You got it.

- Two duck fries.

- Three orders of the duck fries.

- [Doug] You got it.

[sizzling]

- My favorites on the menu,

definitely the atomic bomb sausage.

I love the ribeye steak sausage,

the whisky sausage.

The sausage chili is awesome.

I will probably come back for that today.

- I like the atomic sausage so much

because that has really good flavor and it's spicy.

- You cannot get a better hot dog

than just a grill dog or a char dog

with everything from Doug's.

It's like the purest expression of the Chicago hot dog.

[upbeat music]

It runs as an expression of Doug's interaction

with his clientele.

It's not a pure business

in that it's not just taking over to make money.

There's a misperception about entrepreneurs,

people that run businesses.

We start and run businesses

because this is how we want to live our lives,

this is what we want to do.

Earning money doing it is a necessary part

of the whole enterprise

and if you end up doing some transactions for nothing,

if you end up doing some things for people for nothing,

the fact that you get to keep doing it,

that's more important than the fact

that you didn't get paid.

- He had every opportunity to open second locations,

to franchise, to sell

and he didn't want that.

And that's so counter to how we define success

in this country,

that success means constantly growing

and constantly reaching

for the biggest part of the pie possible.

And that's a really terrible way to define success

because you should be able to do something you love

at the scale that you love to do it,

not at the scale that's financially maximum.

But instead just, that's what he loved to do for a long time

was greet people and make fun of 'em

and call 'em his friend and all of that.

And you can't do that

if there's seven Hot Doug's locations.

- How are you today?

- [Female] Good.

- Alright, what can we get for you?

- [Female] Well I'm gonna do that celebrity sausage.

- This is not the worst idea I've ever heard.

- [Female] Game of the week.

- Oh wait, not the celebrity sausage, oh boy,

boy man, choking at the line of scrimmage here.

I know.

So the rattlesnake you got it. - [Female] Yeah the rattlesnake and the veal.

- You got it.

- [Female] And the thai thing.

- You got it. - But the thai to go, right?

- [Female] Thai to go, could I do that?

- Seriously if you didn't travel

with your own Greek chorus,

you'd be totally screwed.

Wow for someone who just really wanted a hot dog,

you're taking an awful lot of abuse

but you know that's the way it goes.

Thank you so much.

Help yourself to the drink, it's free refills.

If someone wants to go show her how the machine works,

the cup and the whole deal.

- Good morning, guys,

I'm really more talking to half of this building

'cause the time frame changes at the end.

First and foremost,

thank you so much for coming to Hot Doug's.

We absolutely appreciate it.

Full disclosure,

where you guys are standing,

beginning of this building to the middle of it,

see that crease in it,

we're talking about three to three hours and 45 minutes

is your wait time still, just a heads up.

I can see it two ways,

if you've never been here

and you're not a foodie and you're just like,

uh, the phrase it's just a hot dog,

I can see why people think that.

Of course, you can drive by and be like,

oh my God, those people standing for eight hours

is so stupid.

But the truth is people love different things.

And you can stand for concert tickets

or you can stand in line for an iPhone

if you're like oh, I've got to have the newest technology

and that makes sense to you.

- I think it's incredibly humbling, flattering,

I think it's just crazy though.

I so don't get it

because I know he and I will not,

we will not wait in line for food

and being in the food business myself it's like wow.

So I find it, I just find it crazy.

[bell ringing]

- We get bands from all over the world

coming to our studio.

We get bands from Japan,

from Scandinavia, from South America,

from Australia, China.

It's hard to think of a place

where they have people

that we haven't had those people come to our studio.

And number one thing on their list

is we have to make a record.

Number two is while we're here

we have to go eat at Hot Doug's.

- We first went to Hot Doug's

when he was over on--

- Roscoe.

- Roscoe because she lived around the corner on Damen

and that was in 2000?

- Late 2001.

- Yeah and so we've been coming to Hot Doug's ever since.

And we live in Ohio

and we drove over last night just to come today.

- We got here about seven o'clock this morning.

- [Male] Been here before?

- No, first time.

- First time I came here,

I want to say about,

not too long after,

I would say five years maybe.

I didn't know much about Hot Doug's.

- I got to get in on the craziness.

So yes, crazy but I want to be a part of it.

- I've never had a foie gras hot dog

all the times that I've been here.

So I took a personal day from work

to come pay Doug a last visit.

So I'm gonna have the foie gras, the escargot

and I'm not sure about my other two.

But I'm planning on having four.

I don't know if I'm gonna be able to finish four

but I'm definitely gonna try.

- So far everyone's nice, there's no violence.

Some people are drinking beer.

- Why would there be violence?

- I don't know 'cause they've been waiting for too long.

- Doug for life!

- Doug for life.

- Doug life, Doug life.

- You know why we're doing this, we're doing this for the D.

[upbeat music]

- Over the years,

the line has been very long at Hot Doug's,

hour, hour and a half

and I would always joke

like wait till a day it finally reaches my house

which is like seven houses down, half the block.

And I'm like that day's never gonna come

until one morning two weeks ago actually

I was getting ready for work

and fixing my shirt

and I'm right out here checking the mirror

and I'm like my hair looks a little messed up,

should I fix it?

Nah, there's not gonna be too many people out there.

And I turn around and look out the window

and there's people lined up

and it finally reached my house

and that's when this is it,

this is the place to be

and I'm working at the place to be.

[pipe music]

- We're on kind of a short clock

so two day shipping on hot dog hats seemed like a reasonable

and they've been a great hit with the line so far.

- We are allowed to fax in an order.

I'm charmed by the notion that it is fax by the way.

I think that that's indicative

of how long our relationship has survived

that we're still sending orders by fax.

And I don't know anybody else

that gets that kind of treatment from Doug's.

Everybody else has to stand in line.

I feel a measure of guilt about that

because I know that standing in line by itself

is part of the experience.

Whenever I stand in line there,

I feel rewarded by the sort of sense of camaraderie

about the other people around you,

you get to know them a little,

you overhear their conversations,

maybe you join in.

It's a genuinely social thing.

[drumming]

- Has anyone ever seen Doug walk?

- Has he ever left this place?

- Does he exist below the torso?

Is he a machine?

- Is he Superman or Super Doug?

- I think he has robot legs.

We've never seen him from behind the counter.

- He's there after they shut down,

12 o'clock at night, he's there.

They just turn him off.

- The thing about fandom

is that it becomes an engine unto itself.

As soon as people start lining up for a thing

somebody else gets in line behind it

because they're like well if you're lining up,

and then it just grows and grows and grows

and you started having TV shows highlighting it.

I remember when the Anthony Bourdain thing happened

and suddenly that's when weekends were out.

- [Male] Prologue to what is for any carnivore

the ultimate [bleep] reducing item on the menu,

- Come to daddy,

- [Male] The foie gras dog.

- The real change to the restaurant,

there were a few moments in the timeline.

The first one was about a year and a half into it,

so the summer of 2002.

Pat Bruno, the late Pat Bruno,

who was the food critic for the Chicago Sun Times

I think every other year would print a list

and write and article about hot dog stands in Chicago.

And that summer, we were picked as the best

totally out of the blue.

And it was the first time I also,

the experience of something happening

and instantaneously people showing up at the restaurant.

There's no, oh that looks cool,

maybe I'll get to that place.

No, it was the next day.

And it was the only time

that we, the food section came out on Friday.

Saturday we ended up closing a couple hours early

'cause we simply ran out of food.

Incredibly unprepared for this event.

The two major events after that that changed things,

we were on Check, Please

which is the local restaurant show on PBS featured us.

At least that time I was prepared for it.

And business increased four fold instantaneously.

About a year or two later,

we were featured on two programs

that came out roughly at the same time,

Food Paradise on the Travel Channel

did an episode about hot dogs.

We were featured

and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations

which literally changed things globally.

We are now huge in Brazil for some weird reason.

Not a day goes by

where someone from South America

and all over South America is at the restaurant.

- Three of my employees got Hot Doug's tattoos.

One of them comes in, he's got this hot dog.

I'm like, you really did that.

[laughing]

- My mom just didn't understand at that point.

She was like why would you get a hot dog on your arm?

And I was like mom, it's Hot Doug's.

The next day I went to Hot Doug's and showed it to him

and his reaction was actually pretty funny.

His face got really red

'cause I was the first one

so I don't think he would've ever expected it at that point.

So his face got really red and he was like,

"Alex, that's the most flattering/creepiest

I've ever seen in my life."

And then he was like, "You're done,

you never have to pay again."

And I was like, wow, let's go.

I have three people who I've met

that have the Hot Doug's tattoo.

I haven't met the chick

with the Hot Doug's tattoo on her vagina yet though.

- The location is sensitive.

It's not on my buttocks.

People ask why not

and it's because there's already a tattoo there

I don't want to take away from

so it is in that very sensitive front area of the lady.

I first told my mom I think

and just put it on Facebook

and it's edited to be modest

but yeah I had a huge explosion of people

once the word got out, they're like you're crazy

and it was like, was it really worth it?

It's just a hot dog.

And it's not just a hot dog, obviously.

But yeah it was a big mixed reaction

of like you're nuts and that's funny

and what's gonna happen when they close

and stuff like that.

Doug's not gonna be around forever.

And it was like well, say la vie.

You don't miss out on things

just because it's not gonna be there forever.

[upbeat music]

- I don't know, I think that's,

it's such a cool idea

'cause there's always people that already have tattoos.

There's like one or two people

that only have the Hot Doug's tattoo.

And so it's like

when someone's building a sleeve

or a leg piece or whatever

and then they're adding to their personal story,

it's cool that Hot Doug's can be a part of that.

It's cool to see people

that like personalize it a little bit.

They make it something that also means something to them,

they combine these stories.

I think that's neat.

- I think it's hysterical.

That part I find very funny.

So the lines, crazy, the tattoos, funny.

[sad music]

- It was just a regular day,

it was a regular Monday

and we were just closing up.

- He pulled us aside after work one day,

I think it was maybe in April.

We just got introduced to the new guy

and I was thinking to myself,

wow, we've got a whole nother run with this new guy.

So I was getting ready for another year of Hot Doug's.

- And Doug was just,

I was on the last table

and Doug was like can you leave a couple of tables set up?

- And both me and Alex were like,

oh God, we're getting fired.

Oh God, everyone's being let go or something terrible.

- And I'm thinking oh man,

and he said it pretty seriously,

if someone's getting fired, I don't know.

- And he sat us all down

and he just kind of told us, he was like,

I wanted to let you know first.

- I'm sorry, guys.

- And so we're all sitting there

and he can't look us in the eye

and he says, "Man, I don't know how to say this,

"I'm closing down the restaurant."

And when he said that,

it was very, very heavy for me

and I was like, is this a joke?

Maybe something happened

but he just kept going and saying like,

I feel it's time.

- I think we all felt bad for Steve

because he had just started.

- It was really interesting

'cause I'd only been working here a month

or a month and a half or whatever

and it was really interesting,

the cooks all got together and had a serious discussion

about what to do or what they were gonna do or whatever.

- It was really nice

that everyone just decided to stay.

No one went, oh no, we're getting out while we still can.

Everyone was just like

yeah we'll ride this out for five months.

- I just felt that it was time.

This has been an extraordinary run.

The opportunity to close it because I can

not because I have to is rare,

retail certainly very rare in the restaurant business.

There's an aspect of going out when things are going well

is appealing.

It's kind of cool to be able to do that.

It's been an extraordinary run

is sort of the thing that I keep thinking about,

kind of how this started

and then getting to this point.

It's you don't want to say surreal

'cause it isn't that, it is real

but it is, it's pretty remarkable,

is the thing that keeps striking me.

I'm still sort of consistently surprised

by the whole course of events.

And it's an unbelievably cool feeling

more than anything else.

It's unbelievably cool.

I'm gonna have my omelet.

Yeah.

Yeah see that's the face I wanted.

That's what I've been waiting for, exactly.

I don't ask for much,

it's like you sure you don't want a sausage?

- Okay, let's go get more coffee

for the crazies out there.

- Yeah I was the first customer on the last day.

They told me I couldn't get in line for Friday until four.

So I stayed in line for Thursday

and I went through and I ate at about three

and then I hung out and got in line at four

and then I was here all night.

My wife thought I was joking

and then the day before I was like,

okay so you know I am not gonna be here all day

for the next two days?

And she thought I was joking

so she was pretty surprised

but she was cool with it.

- You're welcome, you guys, thank you.

That's awesome.

- [Male] Tell Doug I say thanks.

- I will, I will, you're welcome.

Donuts, donuts.

We'll give you cups and cream.

- Thank God for Doug.

Thank you, Doug.

[upbeat music]

- Thank you, thank you.

- [Crowd] Doug, Doug, Doug, Doug, Doug!

- You're making Barbara cry.

We're out of everything, sorry.

Sorry, The Honey Butter

is gonna be open in a couple hours.

You can bring me back a sec.

Well as long as you're here.

- Well, I think you still have the Barbara?

- [Doug] Alright no problem.

- And I think I'll get the Hungarian and

the Jack Daniel's.

- You got it.

Regular fries or duck fries?

- [Male] Duck.

- Yeah that's right.

For here?

Help yourself to a cocktail, thank you.

[slow music]

[upbeat music]

- The dogs were amazing.

I can remember there were moments

where I had one and it was a revelation.

I can remember almost every conversation I've had with Doug,

when I came to order,

when I brought family or the jokes he made about me

to my folks or to in-laws.

I can remember all that.

That's what I'm gonna miss.

I'm gonna miss feeling like there's a place,

that's something that I'll miss.

[upbeat music]

- There's a line of eight hours worth of people

trying to get in here

and people are climbing through the ceiling tiles

to have lunch here

and I sort of forget how cool it is to

oh work at Hot Doug's.

It's a super intimate place to work.

In the kitchen,

there's five guys that work super close together

and my coworkers are fun.

So of course it's gonna be hard to not miss.

[upbeat music]

You've got one more day.

There's no more slaw in a dog.

There's no more gourmet this or gourmet that.

And part of it is a lot of the people

that have been waiting in line for these long hours

are repeat customers.

They've done it once and they love it

and they don't mind now waiting five, six hours

and they believe that there's value in coming here.

I think he deserves the long lines.

I think he's created something that's pretty magical.

- What do you got for me?

Hold it in.

The main part that I'll miss

is the interaction with the customers

which is the part I like the most.

The stories, the chit chatting

and in these 30 second, 90 second bursts,

I'll miss, there are customers,

all we do is talk about the Chicago Cubs,

other customers talk music, politics, art, travel,

whatever's been going on in people's lives.

There are people who,

kids who I couldn't see over the counter

who are now telling me yeah I start college next week.

The friends I've made, the purveyors, most of them,

has been great.

We become friends with people who I've worked

and who I've been in business with.

Certainly the staff,

that kind of familiarity with them.

The routine of it is I'm sure something I'll miss.

I've been doing this for a long time

and being on that schedule for a long time.

I'll miss that.

- I was just offered a sausage

but I think it would've been blasphemous for me to take it,

waiting all this time to have one in the line.

I don't know.

I'm starving but I feel like that defeats the purpose.

I'm very appreciative though.

You could make a lot of money off that sausage.

Oh man.

I'm just cold, I want to go inside and eat.

That's all I want.

Only my second time here, I'm from the burbs.

Just happened to be in the right place at the right time,

on the other side of the sign.

What's his name, Steve, hooked me up with this jacket,

very nice of him.

Michael let me stand on the other side of that sign.

Alex sent the jacket my way.

Marco gave me a seat to sit on.

So that was cool,

everyone's been very accommodating today.

So very nice, very friendly people.

Make the wait not so bad, coffee, donuts,

[car horn honking]

that guy.

[car horn honking]

Him too.

- I think it's incredibly generous

the way he announced his retirement from Hot Doug's

well in advance

giving everybody the world over

that wanted to make pilgrimage the opportunity.

I think that was an incredibly generous thing he did.

A cynical person might think that he did that

to drum up a bunch of business

so that he could go out with a bang.

But if you consider the hours that they have to put in

to accommodate the people that have come to see them

in their last months

and you consider the consistent, unmatched quality

of the product that they put out,

you can tell that it's just that he wants to do it one way.

- One thing that has changed drastically over the years

is people's willingness to try new things.

The result of Food Channel, the result of travel,

the result of Chicago becoming a dining destination

and people trying new things.

Customers are much more willing,

much more open to different stuff.

Could we do it again and be successful?

Possibly.

The next person can do that.

There he is.

[cheering]

I'd like to point out

these guys are on the clock by the way.

[cheering]

What are you having?

- Alright man, I'm gonna start off with the wild boar.

- Got it.

- Then I'm gonna do the Jack Daniel's,

three Chicagos.

- Trust a grill dog.

- I trust you.

- There's a mistake.

- I'll do two of the veg.

- Got it.

- Duck fat fries.

- [Doug] You got it.

- And a corn dog.

- $38.50 please.

- You guys take debit?

- [Doug] Thank you, my friend.

Grab a drink, grab a seat, we'll bring it right out.

- He's very nice person with us and

I enjoyed to work with him

because I learn a lot of things about him.

He give us the opportunity to learn all the different

person over here.

I would say thanks to Doug

for all that he made for us.

- [Barbara] Congratulations.

- Thank you very much.

Salud, senor.

[slow music]

It's time for a cerveza.

[slow music]

- It's silly to say people really love this hot dog stand.

It's silly to make a movie about it.

It's super silly to line up for 12 hours to do it

but that's how it works.

If fandom was logical,

it wouldn't work the way it works.

When we really love things,

we do all kinds of stupid.

And we can't really explain why we do those things

except that it's to be part of a community

and yeah it was a community around a hot dog stand

but it was a damn good hot dog stand so why not?

[upbeat music]

♪ Hot Doug's

♪ Hot Doug's

♪ Hot Doug's

♪ I want to eat at Hot Doug's

♪ I want to eat at Hot Doug's

♪ I want to eat at Hot Doug's

♪ I want to eat at Hot Doug's

♪ Alright

[upbeat music]

♪ Doug's it up

♪ Doug's it up

♪ Doug's it up

♪ Doug's it up