Historic Stand For Hot Dogs Gets in Shape

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More than a decade after Tail O’ the Pup folded its awning for the last time, the famed West Hollywood wiener stand will soon be serving its all-natural Hoffy beef frankfurters once more.

The eatery, which originally opened in 1946 at La Cienega and Beverly boulevards and was shaped like an approximately 17-foot hot dog – will be reopened May 1 by husband-and-wife team Jay and Nicole Miller, along with Brett Doherty and Kevin Michaels, co-founders of Marina del Rey eatery chain Killer Shrimp.

“It’s really important for us to bring back this iconic place,” said Michaels, who said he often pleaded with his father, rock musician Lee Michaels, to stop by for a dog when he was a kid. “It was just meant to be.”

Tail O’ the Pup’s original owners sold the restaurant to Jay Miller’s grandfather in the early 1970s. It remained open until 2005, when Brentwood’s Regent Properties bought the land with the intention of building an apartment and condominium complex on the site. The stand has been sitting in a Torrance warehouse ever since, but the complex never got built.

Now, Tail O’ the Pup hot dogs will once again be served up, this time in the parking lot of clothing store Opening Ceremony on La Cienega – two blocks north of its original location – where the new co-owners are renting a spot. A brick-and mortar store is also slated to open in the Bloc, a complex being developed on Hope Street in downtown Los Angeles.

Alas, the old stand will no longer work; its plastic and chicken wire construction materials did not meet today’s health regulations. A new weenie-shaped stand is under construction. Prices will have to be updated as well, and its menu will even include some higher-end sausages.

“We’re not selling a 45-cent hot dog anymore,” Doherty said.

– Natalie Schachar

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