Madison's Weenies Focused On Community, Not Controversy

MADISON, NJ - In the month since they've opened their doors in Madison they've been criticized for the appropriateness of their work uniforms and hit with a series of pranks, but despite the bumpy start, the owners of Weenies Hot Dogs say their experience in town has been a good one.

"Madison has been wonderful to us," said Kaidi Dey, who owns the restaurant with husband Michael. "We’ve made many loyal customers already, and the support has been tremendous. It’s a great community to be part of, and we’re happy to be here. Mike often says that some of our Madisonian customers are like old friends — they’re so warm and welcoming, and a delight to have around."

Michael Dey owns another Weenies franchise in Denville and Fatty's, a restaurant that specializes in "fat sandwiches" in Morristown. Fat sandwiches contain permutations of various foods, such as burgers, French fries, cheese steak, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, pork roll, marinara sauce, falafel, gyro meat, bacon, fried eggs, ketchup, mayonnaise all inside the sandwich bread. When the business first opened its doors in October, the uniforms of the employees brought the wrong kind of attention to the fledgling eatery.

The Madison location employees sport the same uniform as their Denville counterparts, a black shirt with the name of Weenies and the phrase "grab yours here" below it with an arrow pointing down to the eatery's website where orders for pickup and delivery can be placed. Some were enraged by the supposed sexual innuendo.

"They should lighten up a little bit," Kaidi Dey said, acknowledging the controversy and the news reports "put them on the map a little more" than they originally expected.

After the reports of the complaints hit, Dey said they received an outpouring of support in the form of people purchasing the shirts for themselves.

"We’ve gotten tremendous support from fans across the United States, and have even shipped shirts as far as Louisiana and Kentucky," Dey said. "They’re selling very fast. I wouldn’t be surprised if half of Madison has already gotten theirs."

Secrets In The Walls

Dey said while the boost of the controversy may have provided some temporary infamy, she would rather people focus on other things related to Weenies. Like their historic location or philanthropy, or good food.

"When Mike took over the property, it was dilapidated. Essentially everything you could think was wrong with the building was wrong with the building, so we gutted the place." Dey said.

And it was while peeling back the layers from one of the walls Dey said they discovered a business license there. The license was from 1942, from the borough of Madison, stating the space was a luncheonette.

"We had found old, hand written kitchen receipts, newspaper clippings and inventory lists in the ceiling before, so we knew the space had been a luncheonette at some point in time." Dey said. "
When we took it down from the wall, we found two more business licenses from the borough of Madison — 1941 for a luncheonette, and the greatest find of all, 1936 for a light lunch — hot dog stand. Eerie, but cool find. It was issued to James Alise, who we later found out was a street vendor known in town for his top hat and for selling peanuts."

Dey said they have also involved themselves in community outreach.

"We’re currently working with New Jersey’s rock music station, 105.5 WDHA, to support the Denville Animal Shelter. We donate a dollar of every single Terrie Carr Top Dog we sell to the shelter. Terrie is the on-air radio personality who graciously gave us her name to use for the dogs," Dey said. "We also hold events called 'dogs for dogs' during which we donate a dollar from every hot dog we sell, and the animal control officer from the shelter comes and brings some adoptable puppies with her for a meet and greet. Every single puppy that came to the last event got adopted within a week, and a number of other shelter animals found forever homes thanks to the awareness we raised for the shelter. Dogs for dogs is our favorite community event out of all of them because we’re helping those who can’t speak for themselves. Especially the last group — all deserted in the path of the hurricane that hit the Carolinas."

Dey said they will continue to look for more ways to get involved in their Madison location as time goes on.

"We’ve done lots of food donations in the past as well, especially feeding public servants and other businesses in town, Denville for the time being," Dey said. "It’s our way of saying thanks. We call it Food Bombing."

(Photos courtesy of Weenies)

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