The Hotdog Dispensary — Restaurant in DeLand

Let's dispense with the pleasantries, this was a big disappointment after a long week. I'll give them points for the initial atmosphere. The location is perfect for a hotdog bar - quaint and cozy. That wore off quickly though, as the food was really not prepared with any thought or consideration for presentation or repeat business. We ordered the No Turn, the Chicago, and what was listed on the menu as 'elote'. The cold buns were like they came from the dollar store, and no step was taken to hide the fact, like maybe warming them up or, GASP!, grilling/toasting them. The dog itself tasted fine, but it was lukewarm. At least it wasn't an Oscar Meyer knock-off. Lastly, the so-called 'elote' was just a 1/3 pf a 12 oz. can of yellow corn, possibly Del Monte, but just as likely a dollar store brand, served cold with some cotija cheese and tajin on top. I asked the guy behind the counter why it wasn't grilled, because, you know, that's kind of what makes elote, ELOTE. He kind of shrugged and said another customer had asked the same thing once. Imagine being 30 minutes from the sweet corn capital of the U.S. and not even serving real sweet corn lol. I didn't even bother to ask to change it for something else on the menu. If you like places with people who unironically wear trucker hats and have tattoo sleeves, this could be your place, but if you're looking for a good hot dog, keep moving on...

Sadly Disappointing... We were so excited when we saw that there was a HotDog place coming to Downtown Deland.. I so miss Caseys on the Corner :( . We had family in town so we popped in there to get some hotdogs.. place is cool inside and the staff was nice. The food though was terrible. We ordered two Chicago dogs, 2 Elote dogs , an Original dog and the Special ( hot dog burnt ends mac and cheese). We took it to go and live 10 mins from there. The hotdogs were cold, they were grainy and the buns were hard and stale. My husband took one bite and spit it out. We did not even touch two of the hotdogs as they were cold. The "Special" did not even have any hotdogs in it it was cold mac and cheese, ole slaw and BBQ sauce.. Disgusting. We saved the food as they were closed when we tried to call so my daughter left a message. They called back and offered to remake the food which we did not want as we were turned off by the quality and taste and just wanted our 50.00 back ( yep 50.00 for 5 hotdogs and mac and cheese) the said someone would call us back. The manager/owner called back and said "they are not in a position to issue refunds" He said just go ahead and be a dissatisfied customer... WTH.. This will be another failed business because the owner does not want to provide good customer service. We ended up eating Mc Donald's, hope he changes his customer satisfaction...

Arrived for lunch and ordered a chili cheese dog and a Chicago dog. Both had their pros and cons.

They use Hebrew National hotdogs, which are of satisfactory quality, the cheddar cheese they use is good quality and melted nicely, and the chili was great, very meaty! My biggest issue with it is that they made it first, and it literally sat behind the counter for 5 minutes while the guy dressed my Chicago dog. By the time I sat down to eat, the chili had totally soggied my bun, and when I took my first bite, the bottom of the bun gave out and the dog fell through. The broken bun made the eating experience of the whole dog messy and difficult. I would love to try a fresh one where the bun wasn’t ruined by the chili.

I was impressed that they got the Chicago dog right, from the poppy seed bun down to the celery salt, but my issue is with the fact that they didn’t steam the bun and one side of the bun was fairly hard (like it had been sitting out and wasn’t fresh).

There is very limited indoor seating, and the outdoor seating can be quite warm in the summer. Also, the entrance to their parking lot is pretty chewed up, so be careful if your car sits low to the ground.

Overall, I can tell they are making an attempt to make high quality hot dogs, but the execution and venue left it feeling like a pretty average experience...