Hank Adaniya was on top of the culinary world. His Chicago Trio restaurants were rated among the top restaurants in America. In 2004 Trio was one of only 13 restaurants in North America to receive a Mobil Five-Star rating.
Many feel he was at the forefront of contemporary cuisine as well as a developer of extraordinary chefs. Yet he left it all behind to become the hot dog king of Oahu.
For Adaniya it was not such a stretch. His parents ran a hot dog stand at Kapiolani Park from 1941 to 1953 and sold upward of 2,000 dogs a day.
Adaniya sold his Chicago restaurants and opened Hank’s Haute Dogs on Coral Street in Kakaako in 2007. A second eatery can be found at the Sheraton Maui Resort.
“We approached the mundane hot dog business with the same creative energy we’d put into gourmet, contemporary cuisine,” Adaniya says. “We took hot dogs to a higher level.”
Hank’s serves an everyday menu that includes Chicago dogs, Polish, chili dogs, bratwurst, chorizo, Andouille, Portuguese sausage, chicken, as well as a rotating array of unusual dogs: lobster, rabbit-and-veal, Kobe beef, duck-and-foie gras, and buffalo.
The sides are also worth exploring: truffled macaroni and cheese, and hand-dipped onion rings.
There’s some debate about who coined the term “hot dog,” but sausages served in buns were known 3,500 years ago in Babylonia. Frankfurters became a rage in Frankfurt, Germany, starting in the 1850s. Soon thereafter, in Vienna (Wien), “wieners” became popular.
The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs a year — about 70 per person.
Hank’s Haute Dogs was featured on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”
“The Hawaii Tourism Authority contacted me a year ago and said the network had asked them to recommend restaurants,” Adaniya says. “A month before the shoot, they told us we were selected. Triple D arrived in October 2009 for two 16-hour days of shooting. We set up at 4 a.m. and were shooting by 6:30 a.m.
“Guy Fieri, the host, was with us for six hours, but the crew was with us for at least 20 hours. They filmed more than an hour for each minute they aired.
“Guy has the same insane energy you see on TV. He’s in your face and can be a little intimidating to work with at first. He was great with all the customers and a very friendly guy.”
It was Triple D’s first gastronomic road trip to the islands, and, besides Hank’s, it featured segments on Highway Inn, Rainbow Drive In, Germaine’s Luau and Nico’s at Pier 38.
“Guy watched me make things and commented on it,” Adaniya said. “We made every single dish on the menu at least four or five times. We must have made 100 dogs or more. He watched and chatted with me about what I was doing. Then he interviewed customers for a couple of hours.
“The Fat Boy was Guy’s favorite. It’s a sausage dog wrapped in bacon and deep-fried. We serve it on a bun with lettuce, tomato and mayo.”
The Triple D episode on Hank’s Haute Dogs aired April 5, 2010. “Our business nearly doubled overnight, after the first airing. Following several other showings, our sales hit record highs of nearly 120 percent over the previous year.”
Bob Sigall, author of the Companies We Keep books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
