Marion Co., West Virginia, businesses deem county 'hot dog capital of the world'

Catherine Galambus is the fourth-generation owner of Yann’s, a shop that opened in the late 1920s and has continued serving hot dogs with the store’s signature spicy sauce ever since.

“I’m glad we could withstand all of the ups and downs of the economy,” Galambus said. “I’m just grateful we can continue this. We’re coming up on 100 years. It’s mind-boggling to me. ... We have a clientele that’s become kind of our family. The people I see everyday are people I know. We knew their families and their families’ families.”

Yann’s is far from the only hot dog shop in town, though. Across the Monongahela River, Woody’s Restaurant in East Fairmont has been selling hot dogs by the dozen for nearly as long as Yann’s. Though the business has been around since the 1940s, it has been owned by Craig Steele since 1996, who now runs the shop with his daughter and restaurant manager Sondra Arbogast.

“I grew up here, and this has always been a central place in the East Fairmont community to sell hot dogs, and that’s never changed,” Steele said. “We’ve kept it as a fine place to come in and eat. ... Most cities have more franchise fast food restaurants ... but a good hot dog, however you want it fixed, is a good lunch. I don’t understand why other cities don’t have more shops that specialize in hot dogs.”

Arbogast said the speed at which she and her staff make the hot dogs for customers can’t be rivaled, to the point that Woody’s regulars don’t even have to order anymore.

“For a lot of our customers, we know what they eat and drink, so as soon as they come in, before they even sit down, they have their lunch,” Arbogast said. “They tell us about their lives, and it feels like we’re friends with everyone.”

Just down the road from Woody’s sits Att’s Place, which has been owned and operated by Athlee Bennett for the past two decades. Bennett, known as Att to her friends and regular customers, said she had always wanted her own hot dog shop, and was finally able to achieve her dream in the early 2000s.

She noted that while hot dogs are a major focus of the restaurant, they are far from its only fare, and Att’s serves daily and weekly specials in addition to an entire menu of food for customers.

“I’ve just always wanted to do what I wanted to do,” Bennett said. “You’ve always got to have your hot dogs. ... I’ve always wanted to do this, and I love people. It’s not about the money. It’s about the people. ... (My customers) mean the world to me. They’re like my family, and I have such wonderful people come in.”

Meanwhile, nestled in Country Club Plaza, the employees at Wright Dawgs, too, are making food for their favorite customers day in and day out. Matt Smith purchased the business in 2021, and has kept many of the restaurant’s original recipes — including its hot dog sauce — intact, noting that he loves coming in and making food for his customers every day.

“I love interacting with the customers, and every day there’s someone new or different,” Smith said. “They make it worth the while. We have a great product that everybody loves, and we’re going to keep that going. ... We have tried to do what the original owners did. ...

“I’ve lived here for 44 years, and Marion County is known for the hot dogs. I remember going to Lupo’s with my parents. I remember going into Yann’s. ... We’re just known for this.”

While Fairmont is home to an array of hot dog shops, it’s not the only place in Marion County to get a quality hot dog, as Rodney Michael and his employees at Hometown Hotdogs have catered to the White Hall community for years. Michael bought the business just over 20 years ago, and has since worked alongside many of the same employees in that time, to the delight of their customers.

“This has been a good business,” Michael said. “I like it here, and while it took a while to get things going, we’ve had it good. We have the same regulars that have been here since I have. I love seeing them and the community. We have a lot of stuff from the different schools and towns (in Marion County). ...

“We’ve sponsored baseball teams for many years, getting them in parades and stuff like that. We love doing neat things like that, as well as car shows and hot dog eating contests. We’ve done a lot of things over the years, and that’s been pretty cool.”

Last but not least, the newest hot dog shop in the county is Vandetta’s Hot Dogs, formerly known as Sonny’s, located on Locust Avenue in Fairmont. Owner Sonny Vandetta said that opening the shop has been a dream of his for 25 years, and he’s been happy to make his hot dogs — which come with sauces of not only varying heat, but distinct flavors — to his customers.

“I’ve tried all of the hot dogs over the last 35 or 40 years, and Fairmont is the hot dog capital of the world,” Vandetta said. “It always intrigued me, so I made the dream happen. ... I wanted to make three different hot dog sauces. I’ve got three unique recipes. ... All three are totally different with different ingredients, and I think that sets us apart. You get bang for your buck here. ...

“This business is five months old, and in this economy, I wouldn’t dare open in Morgantown or Bridgeport. Only in Fairmont can you be successful with a hot dog business. There’s 20,000 people in Fairmont, and I guarantee you that three-fourths of them love hot dogs.”