An SIU student and his uncle have opened a new restaurant on the strip. From Saluki Dogs to authentic Chicago food, Chicago Hotdogs and More is offering a new option for Carbondale residents and SIU students.
“It’s real authentic Chicago food. A lot of places have tried to open in the past but they just don’t use the same quality products the way we do. The way we’re successful we use real Chicago food and we get it from Chicago,” said Curtis Spagnola, co-owner of Chicago Hotdogs.
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Co-owner Elijah Krawczykowski is studying business management and entrepreneurship at SIU. His uncle started the business in Destin, Florida. Over the summer they decided that bringing it to Carbondale would be a good idea for the market.
“Chicago Dogs is a Chicago-style restaurant, there’s a couple in Florida. I just figured if you moved it here, we have a big Chicago population, it’s food that resonates with the market,” Krawczykowski said.
Krawczykowski is a Carbondale native. His family is from Chicago and relates to the Chicago crowd that is in Carbondale.
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“I’m from Carbondale, I grew up here,” Krawczykowski said. “My uncle, my father and the rest of my family is from Chicago. I worked for my uncle over the summer in Florida, where he has one of these restaurants. I just felt like it would do well here in Carbondale since there is a big Chicago population.”
The Chicago Hotdogs menu consists of different hotdogs, Italian beef, bowls of sausages and pizza puffs. They are going to continue adding to the menu in the future.
“The most popular items would be the Saluki Dog, Italian beef and obviously the Chicago dog,” Krawczykowski said.
The Saluki dog is an SIU-themed menu item that includes a hotdog with nacho cheese, shredded cheese, caramelized onions and bacon. The Chicago dog is on a poppy seed bun topped with mustard, relish, onion, tomato, pickle spear, sport peppers and celery salt.
The full menu includes the classic hot dog for $5. The chili cheese hotdog, mac & cheese dog, BLT dog, pico dog, cheese dog, slaw dog, sauerkraut dog, saluki dog, Chicago dog and pizza puff all cost $6. It has Italian sausage for $9, maxwell Polish sausage for $10 and an Italian beef sandwich for $12, as well as fries for $5.
“So far, we’ve been extremely busy,” Krawczykowski said. “One thing about Carbondale is they show a lot of love here. They definitely do. And coming up or growing up here, I know a lot of the people and everybody comes in. We have a pretty bustling Facebook page where we share and repost stuff that we put out. But we are a lot more busy than I thought we’d be. I thought it’d do well, but we sold — we bought a week’s worth of food for what we buy in Florida — and it sold out in two days.”
Chicago Hotdogs is located at 903 S. Illinois Ave. There is a parking lot behind the building available for customer use. Krawczykowski said they were originally looking to be next to Levels, but thinks this is a “premium location.”
“I went through that for the late night crowd and catch people leaving the bar, but I love our location. I tell people all the time that I’d rather be here than farther down the strip, because we get two ways of traffic and we’re closer to campus,” he said.
In the future, Chicago Hotdogs is planning on doing renovations to the building such as opening a to-go window and the front of the building for outdoor seating.
“Some bigger stuff is coming down the line, we just kind of do a lot of the organic stuff, you know, being here with you guys, social media and putting up flyers around town. But probably getting the bigger things down the line,” Krawczykowski said.
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