‘All unique stuff’: Former NC restaurant now in North Myrtle Beach, still family affair
Joe Jessen and “Grams” McSorley are redefining what a hot dog is for people in North Myrtle Beach.
Jessen, 22, and his 78-year-old grandmother, JoAnn McSorley, have relocated The Hot Dog Works from Calabash, N.C., to Sea Mountain Highway in the Cherry Grove area after being closed for more than a year.
Their beef hot dogs are encased in the restaurant’s kitchen and consist of chuck that is ground on site, natural spices, kosher salt and collagen casings. They contain no preservatives nor nitrates and are baked, as are the fresh hot dog rolls.
“A hot dog doesn’t have to be what everybody thinks it is,” Jessen said. “Everybody thinks a hot dog is something that’s been in the package for who knows how long, came from who knows where, made out of who knows what? When you come here you have that peace of mind, you know what you’re putting in your body.
“It’s not full of filler parts and crazy animal parts. It’s fresh beef and spices baked every morning by me and my grandma. You can’t beat it with a stick.”
Reopening a local favorite
The Hot Dog Works was located in Calabash, N.C., for more than two years before closing in March 2020 when its lease ran out on property that was sold. It was opened by McSorley and her husband, who had been restaurateurs for a half century.
“We had already retired three times,” McSorley said. “We just couldn’t sit there and do nothing.”
So they reinvented a restaurant called “Hot Dog . . . “ that they owned 50 years ago.
Hot Dog has ovens and no fryers, and practically everything sold is made in-house.
“Every single bit of it is made basically from scratch. We don’t grow our own cabbage or raise our own cows, but that’s about it,” said Jessen, 22, who is a partner in Vector Surfboards and does art and fiberglass work for the company. “And it’s all unique stuff. The same recipes they’ve been using since their restaurant in Palm Springs back in the ’60s.”
Baked fresh every morning
McSorley arrives at the restaurant between 4-4:30 a.m. each day and hand-rolls the rolls, bakes cinnamon rolls, pies and cakes, and makes lemonade and four types of tea — sweet, unsweet, raspberry and peach — cole slaw, baked beans, baked seasoned potato wedges, ranch dip/dressing, salad dressing, and sweet and spicy relish when needed.
Soon the relish and dressings will be bottled and sold separately. Her salad dressings were once sold in regional Shop ’n Save stores in West Virginia as JoAnn’s Dressings when she operated a restaurant there.
There is a different pie and different cake each day, in addition to the everyday cinnamon rolls.
Rotating individual pies include lemon meringue, cherry, blueberry, banana cream, coconut cream and chocolate cream, and she adds the meringue topping to most. Rotating cakes include carrot, triple chocolate, Devil’s Food, Texas Sheet, lemonade and orange.
Jessen has become popular in his neighborhood. “What we don’t sell at the end of the day we just give away to our neighbors and whatnot because we start fresh every morning,” Jessen said. “We like to look out for our people when we can.”
The restaurant plans to begin selling McSorley’s soups in October including New England clam chowder and beef vegetable.
The business model isn’t complete
Over the past five decades, McSorley and her late husband had several eateries across the country in Pittsburgh, multiple locations in California, Seattle and West Virginia before opening Hot Dog in Calabash, N.C., in 2017.
Jessen had been a Hot Dog employee and took a larger role in the business when his grandfather died in 2018. He became a partner with the reopening this summer.
“When we restarted we decided I’d take the role as a leader and filled his shoes,” Jessen said.
Jessen’s friend Kalon Blanchard is also a partner in the business. “He’s as much a part of the business as me and grams.” Many of Jessen’s friends are employees.
The restaurant is located across from Boulineau’s IGA on Sea Mountain Highway in the Cherry Grove section of North Myrtle Beach. Property owner Frank Boulineau graciously allowed Jessen and McSorley to house their equipment in the store — a former mirror maze that was already being used for storage — while they sought a new location, then suggested they open there.
“It was a blessing in disguise,” Jessen said. “We were super surprised by it but what an opportunity it’s been.”
The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days per week.
McSorley said expansion via partnerships could be in the works.
“I’ve always wanted to see this Hot Dog on a freeway [billboard] where it says food [off this exit],” she said. “I want my little Hot Dog sign on every one of those food signs, and that’s what motivates me.”
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 6:58 AM.
