While out in L.A. earlier this summer, I drove by an iconic hot dog stand and took note of where it was. One day when I had a lull in the action in the middle part of the afternoon, I went back to the Tail O' the Pup to give it a try.
For years, the Tail O' the Pup was one of the most popular and cherished food destinations in Los Angeles. It was featured in television shows, movies and music videos, and attracted entertainers, locals and tourists to its distinctive hot dog-and-bun shaped stand. Stars such as Jay Leno, Betty White, Billy Crystal and Sigourney Weaver were regulars at Tail O' the Pup. It's no wonder that Tail O' the Pup has such a star-studded lineage - it was actually founded by a pair of famous ballroom dancers back in the mid-1940's.
Frank Veloz and Yolanda Casazza were a husband and wife dance team who were known professionally as Veloz and Yolanda. The couple became huge stars in the 1930's performing on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall, in films and putting on shows in ballrooms across the nation. The couple permanently moved to Southern California in the late 30's and realized that they needed to invest some of their entertainment money into something more stable. Yolanda gave birth to their first child in 1940 and the couple decided to start a restaurant to keep money flow going if they were between dancing jobs.
At that time, many of the restaurants in Los Angeles had theme designs in their architecture. Root beer stands were shaped like barrels, orange juice stands were shaped like oranges, and the famous restaurant - the Brown Derby - was shaped like a hat. Hot dog stands were big across America in the 30's and 40's and Frank and Yolanda decided to open their own hot dog stand.
The couple commissioned streamline moderne architect Milton Black to come up with a unique style of a hot dog stand. Black was already famous in designing some of the top homes in the Los Angeles area prior to World War II. Black came up with the iconic 18-foot-long stand and all Frank and Yolanda had to do was to have someone build the bun and hot dog structure find a spot for the new venture.
Then World War II started and Frank and Yolanda put their hot dog stand on hold. However, after the war ended, the couple resurrected their wish to put the hot dog stand on a street corner and open for business. They had the hot dog structure built and found a spot at the corner of Beverly Blvd. and La Cienega in Beverly Hills. The structure was too small to cook in, so they built a kitchen building behind the hot dog structure. Just down the street from their location was another iconic L.A. restaurant, the Tail O' the Cock. Frank and Yolanda decided to name their restaurant Tail O' the Pup as a word play on both the neighboring restaurant and the hot dog nickname.
Frank and Yolanda opened Tail O' the Pup in 1946 with a star-studded opening featuring Hollywood stars and searchlights similar to a Hollywood film opening. The couple ran the stand until the mid-50's when they went through an acrimonious divorce. The stand was sold and changed hands a couple times before a man by the name of Eddie Blake bought the place in 1976. Blake played up the popularity of the iconic hot dog stand and began to attract entertainers to his little stand. Tourists would come to see if anyone famous would show up for one of Tail O' the Pup's famous hot dogs.
In the mid-80's, urban development came calling and the Tail O' the Pup faced demolition in order to put up a luxury hotel. An outcry amongst many in the Hollywood community saved the iconic stand and it was moved to a new location on San Vicente Blvd. Eddie Blake's son Dennis took over the day-to-day operation of the restaurant and continued in business until 2005 when nearby Cedars-Sinai Hospital needed the land for expansion. Dennis Blake tried to find a new location, but real estate had skyrocketed and he couldn't find a spot to even lease to put the hot dog stand on. The Blake family put the hot dog structure into storage hoping to find a spot to start up again.
Unfortunately, that never happened. In 2017, Eddie Blake's grandson Jay Miller inherited the structure. After unsuccessfully trying to pair up with another restaurant to bring back Tail O' the Pup, Miller donated the structure to the Valley Relics Museum, a pop culture museum dedicated to collecting, restoring and preserving relics of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.
In 2018, the 1933 Group - a trio of investors whose primary goal was to restore and renew structures - bought the Tail O' the Pup structure from the museum with hopes to resurrect the business once again. The group - Bobby Green, Dimitri Komarov and Dmitry Liberman - sought out former employees of Tail O' the Pup and researched cooking methods, procedures that were in place, and what made people come back time and time again for the hot dogs. In the meantime, the group had the iconic hot dog and bun painstakingly restored to its original state.
The 1933 Group secured a property at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and La Cienega Blvd. about a mile north of the original 1946 location. The building was once a former recording studio/rehearsal space (more on that later) and they built on a two story frame structure on the front for outside seating. With another star-studded crowd on hand, the new Tail O' the Pup reopened on July 20, 2022, which happened to be National Hot Dog Day.
It was after 2 p.m. when I pulled up to Tail O' the Pup along Santa Monica Blvd. (see map) I was able to find a parking spot just up the street in a metered space. Since it was after the lunch rush, I was able to get right up to the counter inside the big-assed hot dog.
The menu at Tail O' the Pup featured a number of hot dogs with various toppings along with corn dogs, burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken strips, and even a vegetable drink and a skinless hot dog with bacon flavored cheese for dogs!
All the hot dogs at Tail O' the Pup are 100% hormone-free beef wieners that are smoked over maple wood. The original hot dog at Tail O' the Pup - the 1946 Pup - is a split frank that was grilled and served on a toasted bun with chopped onions and mustard. The Piggy Pup had chopped bacon on it, the Jalapeño Pup had sliced jalapeños and a jalapeño spread, and the Chicago Pup was basically a Chicago-style hot dog with green relish, onions, mustard, chopped tomatoes, sport peppers and a dill pickle on a poppy-seeded bun. They also had beer on the menu and I made sure to get one of those to go along with the meal.
I made my choice for what I wanted to eat and was instructed to go inside the building behind the ordering counter to get my food. It was a bright and colorful room with a pick-up counter and a kitchen area behind that. The walls in the dining area full of booths had a number of historical pictures of Tail O' the Pup and some of the people who used to work or dine there. Music from the 1940's and 50's featuring Guy Lombardo, Frank Sinatra, The Andrew Sisters, and Ella Fitzgerald was playing in the background.
I ended up getting the Chili Pup with chopped onions and mustard, and the 1976 Pup - basically a steamed hot dog that as introduced in 1976 when Eddie Blake took over the business. Usually, the 1976 Pup comes with ketchup and mustard. And I'm one who thinks it's a major sin to put ketchup on a hot dog (although my wife likes to eat them that way). I asked the guy at the counter if I could switch out the ketchup for chopped onions and he said that would be no problem.
I decided to sit outside just before the entrance to the inside part of Tail O' the Pup. It was sort of a cool and cloudy day, so sitting in the warm sun was not an option. The padded chairs were comfortable and the tables were sturdy. Actually, I marveled at how clean everything was.
The 1976 Pup had a nice snap to the casing and the steamed bun had a good taste. It was a basic hot dog, but it was good. The Chili Pup was better. The chili had a nice texture and was a bit spicy. It was a nice complement to the hot dog.
The chili dog was messy and after I finished I needed to go to the restroom to get cleaned up for my next meeting in about an hour. However, when I went inside to use the restroom, they had it closed off for cleaning. One of the guys behind the pick-up counter told me that they had a bathroom upstairs by the outside dining area that I could use.
I went up to the second story of the outside dining area and there was a nice little cozy space with a canvas tent over the tables and chairs. I turned to go use the restroom and I saw a plaque on the outside wall of the building that immediately caught my eye. I went in to clean up and then came back out to read the plaque.
The plaque basically said that for two years the building served as a rehearsal space for The Doors, the legendary L.A. band from the late 60's into the early 70's. The band used the building in 1970 and 1971 and decided to record their last album "L.A. Woman" in the building. The recording board was set up in the upper floor and cables were run downstairs where microphones and instruments were set up. Since the building wasn't really sound reinforced for a recording studio, it gave the album sort of a live sound quality. The album was released in the spring of 1971, 2 1/2 months before Jim Morrison's untimely death in Paris at the age of 27. It was one of those moments where I went, "Huh! Well, that's kind of cool!"
The only downside of my visit to Tail O' the Pup was that it was - I felt - extremely expensive. $8.95 for a basic hot dog, $9.95 for a chili dog. $8.00 for a basic plastic cup of beer. With tip and tax - don't know why I needed to tip since it was basically counter service - it was over $30 bucks. That's Major League Baseball ballpark prices. Nevertheless, I had to try Tail O' the Pup just once. The hot dogs were good, but really nothing special. It was great that they were able to resurrect an iconic Los Angeles restaurant, but the sticker shock of the meal I got was one that gave me pause. Nice to go to Tail O' the Pup once, but I won't need to go again.
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