The first thing that catches your attention is the bright yellow tent covering the shiny stainless steel cart. A little closer and the aroma of sweet Italian sausage, bratwurst, and andouille grilling is unmistakable. Closer still, and you can hear the crackle and hissing of meat and onions on the grill.
If at this point you don’t have a serious hankering for a hotdog, you must be vegetarian.
G&G Dogs, home to these smells and sounds, is quickly becoming a staple for workers in downtown Bellevue on their lunch break.
“I have to force myself not to come here every day, so I won’t get burnt out,” joked Daniel Sawlk, who works in the nearby U.S. Bank building. “Everything I have had here is fantastic.”
Currently G&G has two carts that service three locations downtown during the work week. Cart one is at Northeast Eighth Street and 106th Avenue Northeast on Monday, Wednesday Friday, and at Southeast Sixth Street and 112th Avenue Southeast Tuesday and Thursday. Cart two is at the Bellevue Galleria, Northeast Sixth Street and 106th Avenue Northeast, Monday through Friday.
The business was started last August by owners George Henry and Glen Tomkins, both retired engineers.
“I decided ‘Well, I’m not sure I really want to just work in my garden,’” recalls Henry. “So Glen and I sat down and came up with the idea. The reception by our customers has been great, and the city of Bellevue has been a great to work with, which is encouraging. We want to keep looking for additional sites in the area.”
Henry and Tomkins are aiming toward having 10 carts on the streets in the next year and a half.
“We plan on staying on the Eastside,” says Henry, whose commissary for the carts is in Redmond. “We may go north to the county line, and as far south as our supply chain will tolerate.”
In the meantime, you never know where you might run into G&G Dogs. They frequent the Woodinville Town Center and the UW Bothell campus. They have also made visits to numerous craft fairs in Issaquah and Bellevue. They are even booked for a wedding this summer.
Beginning this May, the carts will spend evenings and weekends at Safeco and Qwest fields for Sounders and Mariners games, as well as at Redmond’s 60 Acres soccer fields – much to the delight, no doubt, of hungry young athletes and their families.
The toughest part about visiting one of G&G’s carts is often deciding what to order. They offer all the usual suspects, plus everything from brats heated in Redmond’s uber-popular Mac and Jacks beer (prior to fermentation, so sans alcohol, sorry), to a spicy chicken link, to their twist on the Reuben: a corned beef dog, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Thousand Island dressing. Dogs are all priced around $5.
So what does the grill master himself, G&G employee Steve Turner recommend?
“Oh, I like the sausage and the bratwurst, of course, but it’s always changing. I like the Tuscan right now. It’s a little spicy which can warm you up if it’s a bit chilly,” said Turner, in his charming British accent. “And if you want, we will throw some bacon on there too and away you go!”
Keep track of G&G Dogs’ schedule and locations via their Twitter page: twitter.com/ggdogs.
Aaron Randall is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
