Conway hot dog cart gaining popularity
Brad Kossover, Green Cart Deli owner and operator, may have bitten off more than he can chew, so to speak.
The eco-conscious restaurateur has developed a cult following among the individual hot dog enthusiast and the small businesses of Conway, whose employees enjoy an eco-friendly lunch.
Kossover said he will not franchise, though he’s been given the option.
“Success, if you would call it that, has been being approached for franchisement. That isn’t what this is all about, though,” Kossover said.
Kossover’s solar-powered dining cart, equipped with a couple of stools, can usually be found at Walgreen’s locations in Conway and at Conway Commons.
Each morning, he announces his exact location to his followers of Facebook and Twitter.
Recently, Kossover has been selling out of his product before the lunch hours are over.
“I can only put so much on the cart. I sold a couple of hundred hot dogs today by myself,” Kossover said. “At a small school down the road, someone bought all the teachers a hot dog today.”
Kossover said he’s been filling lunch orders for small businesses, which has been a challenge, but he said he’s tried his best to accommodate the larger orders with his one-man operation.
“Some folks might be put out because they have to wait so long if I get an order like that. They might think it’s not very efficient, but it is designed very efficiently. It isn’t designed to throw hot dogs into a crowd.”
Kossover said each hot dog, with a possible 540,000 recipe combinations, takes time.
“It’s complex. You take a simple hot dog, and it becomes a complex and delicious thing.”
Besides his main fare, Kossover’s brownies have gained popularity in the area.
“I get up at 3 a.m. to bake. No lie. I have to get a lot of brownies done. Sometimes people contact me and have me drop them off, so I’ll leave the house early, make stops on my way and get here with no brownies left to sell.”
Kossover said his customers would be happy to hear that the Green Cart Deli will soon operate during evening hours at locations around Conway, and another cart, to be operated by a like-minded friend, will soon be “rolling around in a nearby city.”
“I don’t think just anyone can step in and do this. That’s the problem with franchising. I’ve had other opportunities, and they try to get me to perceive that they are, but I’m just not into it. This is fun, and I think that’s what makes it work.”
(Staff writer Courtney Spradlin can be reached by e-mail at courtney.spradlin@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1236. To comment on this and other stories in the Log Cabin, log on to www.thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)
Comments (38)
Add commenteco-friendly lunch alternative
Not an "alternative to lunch." Unless you are suggesting that this man has invented a new meal.
I'm not usually one to point
I'm not usually one to point out spelling or grammar errors, but "franchizement"???? Really....even "franchissement" (French clearing or crossing) or "franchisement" (Release; deliverance; freedom) would have been wrong.
Maybe since it's a quote you get a pass....cheers!
Franchizerable
It does sound like that his business is franchizerable.
Great story
This is really a good story. Instread of worrying about all the bad stuff in the world, we finally see a story of one person doing good for himself and yes Hawkeye, offering an alternative to the same old crap most of us eat for lunch everyday. It might just be a hotdog, but how many people at 11:00 a.m. say, I think I will go eat a hotdog?
Good for you Brad
Mike
I'm afraid you missed my point. The sentence reads as though he offers an alternative TO LUNCH, when really he offers an alternative to non-eco-friendly lunches. It's a sentence that should be rewritten.
So, how green is it, when he
So, how green is it, when he loads the cart onto a trailor and pulls it around in a big ole truck. Kind of misleading.
@ 5away
Do you have any idea of the daily carbon footprint a lock & key restaurant has?
How about the fact that by setting up in different locations, people don't have to drive as far, or at all for lunch? Not to mention catering an office full of people, who have to walk 50 feet to get food!
Not very misleading now is it?!
5away
"So, how green is it, when he loads the cart onto a trailor and pulls it around in a big ole truck. Kind of misleading."
Not to mention, the delivery service.
@ 5away
So your argument is that 1 big ole truck burning a gallon of fossil fuel vs. and office full of people each burning a gallon of fossil fuel isn't the greener of the two? Please tell me, which scenario do you consider green?!
does the cabin have stock in this????
I have a very small business....more public service I would say and I have ran ads in the cabin paper and womens inc. I can't get a "free" plug at all....yet it seems everytime I open up the paper there is a plug for the eco friendly hot dog vender.
Perhaps I should market my lil service business I do as Eco friendly and maybe, just maybe I could get 1 snipet without paying an arm and a leg.
For a city this size, it is amazing to me that this vendor has so much free publicity from the LCD. There just must not be anything else going on here to write about.