Company use hearses and coffins to sell hot dogs

Dead Dogs Ltd. was born about a year ago, when Salvatore La Barbera, 64, a car collector and shopping centre developer, looked up cars for sale on the Internet and noticed a Cadillac hearse for sale. On a lark, he submitted a lowball bid of $12,000 and was surprised to get it. When a friend picked up La Barbera's new hearse, he phoned with news: The monstrous vehicle came with a real coffin. "What am I going to do with that thing?" wondered La Barbera. Nothing at first. It wasn't until he was sitting poolside at a hotel in Manila, the Philippines, that he thought about adapting the hearse for the food-truck revolution. "It was just another idea that popped into my head."



La Barbera, a self-described car lover, used his restoration skills to rip out the coffin's cushioning and insert a propane-stove and his own, patented hot dog steamer. He claims it can plump one frank in 15 seconds and 200 in 30 minutes. Next he recruited a partner, Frank Leamy, owner of four Mama Mia's Italian restaurants. They scouted far and wide for franks, settling on the Hoffy brand served by the famous Pink's Hot Dogs in Hollywood. And they came up with a company name and phrase that Gomez, Morticia, Pugsley and the rest of the creepy Addams Family would have loved: "Dead Dogs, Ltd: Bite Me!"



Currently the owners are still testing the market and developing a growth plan. They're starting with four hot-dog hearses, some seen around San Jose both days and nights. Since La Barbera spends much of his time in Hawaii, he is also trying out wagons there. When independent franchises are developed, the estimated fees will be about $15,000, plus $10,000 a year for shared advertising. The vendors will get pristine hearses and coffin-carts ready to go. La Barbera is so confident, he's already opened a local factory to convert metal coffins into his patented steamers.



Not everyone thinks the Dead Dog hearses are cool. "Some people take a dim view of this because of the controversy of mixing food and death," La Barbera said. "But I've had a lot more people stop me just to take a picture." However, the food-truck revolution changes faster than chefs can concoct new taco fillings. I wanted this to be lighthearted," La Barbera said. "But once the novelty goes over, and people laugh, I want the food quality to be tops."