Once mobile ‘dirty water’ hot dogs have found a home on Ocean Blvd. in Myrtle Beach
It’s called Dogs on Wheels, but it’s now stationary, and it’s in Myrtle Beach.
For the past five years, Duane Greer and partner Ivan Santos have owned and operated a hot dog cart called Dogs on Wheels that was towed behind a pickup truck. It was based in North Carolina and did business throughout the Tar Heel State.
They came to Myrtle Beach on vacation last year “and we were like, ‘Man it would be so good to get a location here and bring what we do in North Carolina to Myrtle Beach,’ ” Greer said.
They planned to bring the mobile cart to the area but instead found a vacant store on Ocean Boulevard near 7th Ave. North and opened on Feb. 15.
“We ended up finding this great location here,” Greer said. “The idea was to kind of bring the New York style hot dog that you can get off the street corner in a cart, into a restaurant environment.”
Now that they have a brick-and-mortar location, why not change the name?
“The name kind of stuck with us,” Greer said. “People love it, and we have a big hot dog truck out back. We kind of wanted to stick with the name and what we have.”
The secret ingredient
Greer said the secret ingredient that gives their premium all-beef hot dogs a unique and special taste is the seasoned liquid they sit in before being placed on a bun, which they call “dirty water.”
Greer said it took the duo five years to perfect the hot dog marinade “so we’re kind of like on the secret side of it,” Greer said.
Dogs on Wheels offers regular hot dogs, jumbo dogs, a spicy sausage, pulled pork sandwich, and nachos.
An introductory special throughout the summer is two hot dogs loaded with the customer’s choice of condiments, two bags of chips and two canned drinks.
Similar specials featuring either jumbo dogs or spicy sausages are $11 each.
A plain dog with ketchup and mustard is $2.
Condiment options include chili, cheese, sauerkraut, onion, onions in red sauce, pickle relish, jalapenos, coleslaw, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and spicy brown mustard.
“Just about anything you can think of we can put on a hot dog, all the way to hot sauce and BBQ sauce,” Greer said.
There are no added charges for condiments on all but the plain dog.
One specialty is a Frito dog featuring Frito chips, chili, cheese, onions and jalapenos.
Supporting the community
The restaurant also offers cookies and other treats and desserts supplied by Sweet Creations by Melinda of Myrtle Beach, which is owned by Melinda Grayson.
“We decided to try to stay local in everything we’re doing,” Greer said. “Our produce is local. We do everything fresh.”
Greer and Santos are big supporters of first responders, so they periodically visit police, fire, EMS, military members, doctors and nurses to offer them products, gift cards and discounts.
“That’s our way of saying thank you and supporting them,” said Greer, who said the restaurant also plans to give away free meals in-house on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We want this to help us support the community.”
This story was originally published March 22, 2022 at 10:21 AM.
