• franken’s: LA’s first vegan hot dog stand!

    29
    February 3rd, 2009quarrygirlfranken's, LA restaurants

    even with all the awesome vegan food options in los angeles, i think it’s safe to say none of it is quite as fun or interesting as the stuff from franken’s, a 100% vegan spooky-themed hot dog stand that travels around the city feeding hungry people outside venues like the smell and pehrspace.

    the franken stand! 100% plant-based gourmet franks!

    the franken stand! 100% plant-based gourmet franks!

    i started following franken’s on myspace, and i can’t tell you how stoked i was when i read their description of the franken stand:

    We Heard Your Cries For Tasty Food At Those Late Night Shows! Franken’s Offers Gourmet Franks Fresh Off Our Franken-Stand! They Are 100% Plant-Based And Frightening Delicious! Dress Them With Your Choice Of Trimmings. We Carry Vegenaise, Hot Sauce, BBQ, Mustards, Ketchup, Kraut, Relish, Peppers, Onions, And More… Wash It All Down With A Selection From Our Wide-Variety Of Healthy & Savory Sodas!

    in a city full of hipsters chasing taco trucks and rogue hot dog vendors, it’s nice to see a vegan stand has sprung up and thrown itself into the mix. i friended franken’s on myspace to track their location, and was so excited to see they were scheduled to set up in echo park right outside pehrspace for a dance party called hungry beat last sunday night. we hauled ass all the way from hollywood to the east side at 9pm just to get a taste of the delicious franks.

    we arrived early (at least for this crowd, it was early!) at around 9:30pm and navigated our way down the dark glendale boulevard, looking for the franken stand. we heard some music bumping from the glen village shopping center, and wandered in to find a hidden oasis of veganism. the franken stand was set up proudly, affixed with flashing LED lights and colorful drawings of monsters. two very friendly people stood behind it, a man and a woman; the man neatly dressed in an old-school conductor hat and stripey shirt. they welcomed us to the stand and explained that everything was plant-based—no meat, no dairy, no eggs—and that we could choose our flavor of hot dog, then pile on as many toppings and sauces as we desired. on the counter there was an impeccably clean tray of chopped fresh vegetables, from pickles to jalapenos to onions, and a carousel of neatly labeled sauces, from mustard and ketchup to vegenaise and cilantro cream. i knew we’d found something really special.

    we ordered two hot dogs, the witch and the franken (all the franks have fun, spooky names and descriptions), and piled them high with toppings and sauces from the cart. we found a nearby newspaper stand under a streetlamp on glendale boulevard and tore into our franks like hungry vultures. as you can see, one hot dog didn’t even survive without a bite long enough to be photographed.

    the witch and the franken.

    the witch and the franken.

    the witch tofu dog with full sail ale was definitely my favorite. it had a distinct microw-brew taste and a really thick texture. piled high with fresh onions and slathered in hot sauce and cilantro cream, it was in-fucking-credible.

    the witch: how's your hex life? let this big sausage put its spell on you! made with real tofu and micro-brewed with full sail ale! $4

    the witch: how's your hex life? let this big sausage put its spell on you! made with real tofu and micro-brewed with full sail ale! $4

    the franken was also awesome. it was thicker than the witch, and stuffed with tons of sun dried tomatoes, giving it a distinctively sweet taste. covered in hot sauce, mustard, onion, and fresh jalapeno…this sweet frank was suddenly transformed into being really spicy as well!

    the franken: this classic sausage will make you feel, ALIVE! with monster blend of sun dried tomatoes and basil giving it a slightly sweet taste. frighteningly delicious! $4

    the franken: this classic sausage will make you feel, ALIVE! with monster blend of sun dried tomatoes and basil giving it a slightly sweet taste. frighteningly delicious! $4

    both dogs were flawless and scrumptious beyond belief. franken’s ain’t lying when they brag that they offer “gourmet franks”, it’s true! i don’t know where they get them from, but the franks were so tasty and well-crafted…plus, i can’t even stress how fine and fresh all the toppings were. the franken stand is doing it right—offering high-quality, cheap, vegan food to hungry late-night party-ers.

    i am so impressed with franken’s in fact, i have decided to be a hot dog rat and chase the franken stand from venue to venue, eating it whenever i can. as of now, their next appearance will be in canoga park at the threat fest on february 20th. hopefully i will see you there, and be sure to follow franken’s on myspace for all their upcoming dates. as soon as you can, i highly suggest you make the drive out to eat franken’s, and come very hungry so you can try as many different franks as possible!

    UPDATE! franken’s now has a twitter account! follow them for their location at twitter.com/TheFrankenStand! thanks to commenter foodeater for pointing this out.

    find franken's and EAT IT UP. you won't be sorry!

    find franken's and EAT IT UP. you won't be sorry!

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19 responses to “franken’s: LA’s first vegan hot dog stand!” RSS icon

  • Your blog really makes me want to move to LA. Mmmm.

  • Veggie food stand/vender in the valley? Score!

    Now if only someone would come up with a vegan/veggie taco truck…

  • This is what I love about your blog.
    You review upscale Akasha … and then follow it up with a vegan hot dog stand! Great stuff! Vegan food from one end of the spectrum to the other!
    Franken’s looks AWESOME! Thanks so much for the post!

  • You MUST be joking. I’m shocked! I hope they’ll park themselves outside of the Hollywood Bowl once their season starts. We really DO have everything here!

  • Nice, I read about this a while back on the Vegan Collection blog but then haven’t heard of Franken’s again since then. I am so intrigued, I might have to join you for the Canoga Park hunt! I sure wish they’d set up a Twitter account for easy tracking… Myspace is so 2008.

  • Wow! Excellent vegan investigative skills!

  • This is awesome! We have something similar in SF called Sausage Party!

  • kudos to whoever piled the classic “franken” unnecessarily high with jalapenos – precisely my kind of dog!

  • wait. you have to follow them on myspace to know where they are?

    i think they need to join twitter.

  • Nice… someone either read my comment… or read my mind!

    twitter.com/TheFrankenStand

  • check out franks @ the east hollywood art cycle on FEB 28TH, 2-10PM. much respect to ray and his hard work to achieve his goals. I met this guy outside of L’keg Art Gallery on Temple/Glendale. We was ready for customers at least a good hour prior to the event. I recommend the “the wolf” with a little bit of onions.

  • OMG… Sausage Party… Look at how cute Franken boy’s uniform is…

  • From the descriptions provided, it sounds like they are using the Tofurky sausages and franks. Tofurky does make the best ones and at $4 that is quite reasonable. Franken’s should get the new “foot long” frank that Tofurky makes and sell that too.

  • Cool! I was just at pehrspace last week but Franken’s wasn’t there. I’ll keep an eye out for them!

  • This is great!!! Breadbuns with no dairy??? No doubt I will be hunting them down on Feb 13th. 😀

  • I’m an Australian planning to move to LA and your blog has given me inspiration and hope. The land of vegan food! The land of vegans!! What’s this – vegan fast food?!

    In Sydney we have two (2) vegan restaurants. We do not have a wandering vegan hot dog stand. We do not have vegan mexican food – hey, we barely have dead-thing mexican cuisine.

    Thank you for writing entertaining, informative reviews with pretty pictures. I’m going to be fat and happy when I get to your side of the world.

  • As human beings we chase after fleeting pleasures like a child licking agave off a sharp knife. Enjoy.

  • Coney Island hot dogs from Detroit pwn all other hot dogs!

  • Well sounds like it’ll be great I’ll try it out with my boyfriend


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