Frankly, that’s a lot of hot dogs

Fast-growing ‘Daddy’s Dogs’ looks to sell 300K-350K just this year

Friday, August 26, 2022, Vol. 46, No. 34
By Lucas Hendrickson

Sean Porter whips his scooter into the parking lot of Daddy’s Dog’s brick-and-mortar location in The Nations, parking it between the trailer that serves as the headquarters for his burgeoning hot dog-based empire and the bright yellow former gas station that acts as its primary hub of operations.

The choice of vehicles isn’t that surprising given the various pieces of unique, wheeled hardware strewed about the parking lot. Seven stainless-steel trailers over here, each adorned with a color-coded strip of tape along the top edge and each festooned with a Cuisinart griddle bolted to the deck. A Cushman mini-truck over there, lovingly called “the meter maid” for what the model of truck is most often used for, also rigged for food service but currently out of commission.

But Porter’s scooter might be seen as an odd mode of transport considering it was an accident on one eight years ago that sent him on the path to become Nashville’s “Big Daddy” of hot dog culture by selling 300,000 to 350,000 hot dogs a year, his estimate for 2022.

Porter had been working for years as a road manager for independent artists, basing out of his hometown of Seattle, when an early 2014 scooter accident resulting in a broken leg took him off the road for an extended period.

During his convalescence, Porter bounced around a slew of ideas about what he should do next and where he should do it, given his general sense of having accomplished all he could in the Pacific Northwest.

“A friend of mine brought up the idea of opening a hot dog stand,” Porter says. “I was looking for something to do that created some passive income. I was super broke because my career had basically come to a halt from my leg being broken.

“I went back on the road after I was healed and was out with (singer-songwriter) Elle King and she was splitting time between here and New York,” he says. “And it just made sense to come down to Nashville. I was really complacent in Seattle, I’d reached the top of my career, at least in music. So, I was like, well, let’s move south and start trying something new.”

The winter of 2014 was still relatively early in Nashville’s “It City” ascension, and when Porter surveyed the late-night Lower Broad eatery landscape early in his residency, he took note of the lack of street food options, specifically hot dog carts, recognizing that as an opportunity.

“I hit up my buddy who was out here playing music,” Porter says, “and he was looking for some other kinds of income outlets, so I asked him, ‘You wanna try this? I got a garage, we can try to work it out of here.’ So we went for it.”

Before they could go for it, Porter had a very specific idea about branding the new business. He wanted visuals that would evoke an adventurous spirit, but be approachable at the same time. “I wanted a pirate flag with my face on it with hot dogs, kind of like a skull and crossbones.”

So, teaming with childhood friend Andrew St. Marie, and with that first cart and the friendly visage of Porter and crisscrossed frankenfurters behind him, Daddy’s Dogs was born.

Porter tried for a couple of years to make the two-career thing happen, heading out on the road and manning the cart when at home, but that approach quickly became untenable.

“You’re working nonstop when you’re out on the road and you kinda get a little break when you get home,” Porter says. “I was wearing myself out, and every time I’d get ready to leave for the road I was dreading it.

“I had always said when it wasn’t fun anymore, I’d hang my (road managing) hat up. So I sat down with Andrew and said, ‘Should we give this a real whirl? If I get off the road, I’m going to have some real time to put into this.’ He was, like, ‘I’m down if you are.’

“Within a year after I got off the road, we went from having one cart to four, and the year after that we opened this,” he says, gesturing around the gas station-turned-restaurant, “and within six months of that, we opened Printer’s Alley,” referring to the company’s downtown spot open 9 p.m.-2 a.m. six nights a week.

The West Nashville location was the key component for growth, however, not just for the chance for regular clientele but as a hub for the overall operation.

“We needed a commissary, because we had honestly been running everything out of my garage. We were bursting at the seams even with just four carts at the time,” Porter says. “There’s a lot of equipment that comes along with those carts, with tents and coolers and everything else you gotta take to make it happen. We knew it was time to find a new spot.

“We got lucky because we were still a fairly new company at that point, and the landlord took a shot on us because they saw some potential,” he continues. “We’ve been over here ever since, and we’ve been really lucky to be able to grow with this neighborhood and become a staple over here.”

Thanks to the Nations location, its “satellites” downtown and a growing cadre of carts at public and private events all over town, Daddy’s Dog’s future was looking as bright as the familiar yellow color behind its logo. But then, as will be the case for so many business stories for the next decade … 2020 arrived.

“We kind of hit our stride right before COVID hit, and then it was the new world,” Porter says. “Luckily, we kind of thrived because our locations are all outdoors. We were able to turn this into a destination people knew and really loved to come to.”

Having a set spot in which to ply the hot dog trade has been a lesson in how to merge Porter’s own experiences with the interests of his growing customer base. The combinations of flavors on Daddy’s Dog’s main menu items are inspired by Porter’s musical travels, but additions like milkshakes came directly from the public.

“You pick up a lot of things listening to customers, really. What do they want?” he notes. “Somebody says, ‘I think milkshakes would be great at your spot in The Nations.’ OK, let’s try milkshakes out and see how they do, setting up a program around that.”

That milkshake program also recently served as the platform for Porter and Daddy’s Dog’s most visible, if delicate, social media campaign. After the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, and seeing the quickly ramping conversation about reproductive health, Porter decided to approach the situation from a different direction.

“I had a vasectomy about four years ago and I came here and got a milkshake afterward. Then a friend of mine had his and I said, ‘Hey, I’ll buy you a milkshake,’” he says. “I had this idea in the back of my mind for a long time to partner with a urologist, and every time he performs a vasectomy, he gives them a coupon for a milkshake from here.

“I love those out-of-the-box, really stupid kind of marketing ideas that, it’s not gonna reach a ton of people, but the people it does reach, you’re gonna hook ’em for a long time,” Porter continues. “When the Supreme Court stuff came down, (the idea) came back in my head, but it was more like, ‘let’s skip the urologist side of it, let’s just do it, state our case here.’”

Thus was born the “Snip For Shake” campaign, where people could bring in proof they had received a vasectomy and receive a free milkshake.

“I wasn’t really trying to make a ton of political moves or anything like that,” Porter adds. “It’s just with the topic at hand of abortion, the one way to stop it from happening is to prevent it from happening in the first place.”

“That’s something that’s in the guy’s court, that they can take on and do, and is reversible for the most part for people,” he says. “It’s a different conversation than the one’s that’s happening. That’s the thing that people don’t often look at; there’s this conversation, but there can also be another side of the conversation over here, too.”

If there’s been any blowback from occasional moments of edginess Porter might bring upon the company, it hasn’t slowed big-name partners from wanting to work with the brand. Daddy’s Dogs has a prominent place among the food vendors at the new GEODIS Park and, this fall, will have a fixed location to go along with tents inside Nissan Stadium.

“We’ve had tents at Nissan for a bit, but we haven’t had an actual deal with the Titans, so we’ve really had to tiptoe around about advertising that we’re there,” he says. “Now we can officially say, we’re in there, which I’m really excited about. I feel like it kind of ups the level of perception to people about what the brand is and what we’re about.”

But even the high visibility brought to the brand via new partnerships doesn’t dim Porter’s enthusiasm about slingin’ dogs to the public at large. In fact, it energizes him and his staff even more.

“A lot of places come to us wanting to do team appreciation days or whatnot,” Porter says, “and those are a lot of fun because it really puts you under the gun when you realize you gotta feed 2,000 people in an hour.”

And even though his staff has grown exponentially, Porter can often assure them that no two Daddy’s Dogs days are going to be alike.

“Right now, staffing-wise, we’re running about 60 people, and if we just kind of shift some of those bodies from this location to the other ones, needing to make something happen for a day, we will,” he says. “A lot of times our folks are there for only three or four hours, but they may work one event and a late night ‘best of both worlds’ thing’ cause they know they’ll make some cheddar that day.”

Even with these new opportunities, outside forces such as supply chain issues and inflation constantly change the equation for businesses like Porter’s. Earlier this year, it was the availability of their paper products. Right now, it’s access to bacon and cream cheese.

But dreaming about where this brand with his smiling, cartoon face adorning it could go that keeps Porter working toward the future, even if courses change along the way.

“There’s a lot of things I’d really like to try to make happen. I’d really love to see our sauces go into stores, and I’ve been working on that for a year,” he says. “But because of how we make our sauces and what the ingredients are, I’m having a really hard time finding a co-packer to do it and keep it shelf stable, where it doesn’t have to be refrigerated.

“I think you’re gonna see a couple more brick-and-mortar locations in Nashville, then hopefully some outside the market, getting ready to see if we can take this thing national,”

Porter says. “It’s just grind and bet on yourself, and put it back in. That’s been my biggest thing throughout my entire life, being able to bet on myself and know that and trust my gut enough to know that I’ll make it through and succeed.”