New Portillo's Can't Stop Hey! Hot Dog: 'We're Still Getting Lines'

JOLIET, IL — Hey! Hot Dog owner B.J. Uedelhofen wasn't sure if gloomy skies were on the horizon for his legendary Ruby Street restaurant after the first Portillo's Pickup triple drive-thru in the entire country opened Feb. 1 on Larkin Avenue.

Now, more than four months later, Uedelhofen looks happy and he's upbeat. He feels confident to say Hey! Hot Dog has weathered the Portillo's storm.

"The business is still doing good, yeah," Uedelhofen told Joliet Patch's editor during Thursday's interview. "Portillo's, it hasn't seemed to have affected us at all.

"I wasn't really worried about Portillo's, but I thought it might affect us. They sell hot dogs, but they have salad bars, liquor licenses, catering, they do just about everything."

In terms of month to month sales, has the new Portillo's Pickup negatively impacted Hey! Hot Dog's revenue stream, Joliet Patch inquired.

"It has not, zero," Uedelhofen answered. "Thank goodness, even with gas prices being what they are, we're still getting lines."

Hey! Hot Dog has been a part of Joliet since 1959 when it was on Joliet's East Cass Street, next to the current McDonald's.

It's been here at 601 Ruby St. since 1978.

Since the 2020 global pandemic, Uedelhofen has kept his lunch counter off-limits to customers.

In the alternative, he has turned Hey! Hot Dog into a full-fledged drive-up only restaurant.

He and his dependable employee, Lauren, who has worked for him seven years, walk outside to take the orders and then bring customers their food.

People can also eat outside during the beautiful summer weather. Hey! Hot Dog has several wooden picnic tables spread across the lawn near the parking lot.

"We're keeping it a drive-up for now," Uedelhofen said. "All my regulars know the routine."

Uedelhofen said he studies his monthly sales reports to spot trends, positive and negative.

"It's been good," he said. "I can't complain."

So what's been doing well, sales wise, in June?

"This is root beer float weather," Uedelhofen replied. "And they love the ice cream.

"And after selling them for 20 years, people are just starting to realize we have an incredible kielbasa sausage. It's a lean Polish sausage, no gristle."

At present, hot dogs, homemade root beer served in a frosty mug, and the sizzling kielbasas, those are the three main customer favorites at Hey! Hot Dog.

Uedelhofen said a number of customers have urged him over the years to be more like McDonald's and expand the offerings on his menu.

He continues to reject that advice.

"We keep it simple by keeping it the same," he said. "We still do the (potato) chips. Nothing fried."

For decades, Hey! Hot Dog has stayed closed on Sundays. It's open Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to around 7:30 p.m.

At 2:20 p.m. Thursday, two older men in a car pulled into the lot to place their order. They considered themselves regulars. After placing their order, the driver blurted out to Uedelhofen, "Can we go inside now?"

Uedelhofen said he explained to them he's hoping to reopen the lunch counter in the fall.

The most pressing issue for that to happen, he told Patch, is finding more dependable part-time help.

"Help is still slim," he said. "It's slim pickings."

Some traditions at Hey! Hot Dog are hard to break, and that includes method of payment.

Hey! Hot Dog has never had a credit card machine.

And there are no plans on the horizon to change that, Uedelhofen said. After all, the vast majority of customers know that's one of the things that makes Hey! Hot Dog unique.

Another time-honored tradition at Hey! Hot Dog takes place late every summer, and this year will be no exception, Uedelhofen said.

That's when Uedelhofen, who is also a Joliet area farmer, sets up his sweet corn stand in his Hey! Hot Dog parking lot.

He also sets up a secondary stand in Shorewood along Black Road, just a couple blocks east of River Road.

He said the sweet corn and other freshly grown vegetables will be available for people to purchase during the last week of July or the first week of August, including tomatoes and zucchini.

As Joliet Patch was interviewing Uedelhofen in his parking lot, a middle-aged woman who had parked with her husband to eat their food, yelled across the lot, "It's the best hot dog! This is my new favorite place. I just told my husband that."

A smile came across his face as he yelled back to the woman, appreciating her gratitude.

Hey! Hot Dog's owner thanked her for patronizing his small, family-owned Joliet restaurant. He encouraged her and her husband to keep coming back.

Unsolicited comments from new customers like that, he said, reinforce his belief that Hey! Hot Dog remains important for Joliet in 2022, just as it did in 1959, when his dad started it.

"It's a super, super, tough business," Uedelhofen remarked. "It can become grueling. It can be tough."