By Sonia Dasgupta
It’s a rainy Wednesday around noon and steam billows from a silver hot dog stand on Main Street. As Bennie Dollard cooks up a cheese steak for one of his regular customers, Sam Wyatt, they talk about his week.
“How’s your leg?” Bennie says.
“It’s ok, not as bad as Monday,” Wyatt says.
“My mom always says when it rains, the little aches you have come out,” Bennie says.
Wyatt, an employee of the university’s honors program, discovered Bennie’s stand in mid-July and now comes once or twice per week. He says he knows what a good cheese steak should taste like because he is from the suburbs of Philadelphia and he says Bennie’s are great.
“It’s the smell, the grill,” he says. “There’s a flavor that comes from charring meat that doesn’t come from anywhere else.”
The stand located right in front of the National 5 & 10 not only has the simple hot dog, but also an array of sandwiches from kielbasa and sausage to various Caribbean-influenced offerings. Bennie also sells breakfast sandwiches and his best seller is “The Hustler” — philly steak, two eggs, sautéed onions, hash browns and cheese. (more…)