Are Home Depot Dogs ‘The Most Chicago Thing Ever’? Fixin’ Franks Fans Say Yes

CHICAGO — Day after day, Chicago’s laborers, contractors and craftsmen head to the Home Depot for a host of essentials: lumber, fittings, tile, Polish sausage, tools, walking elote, PVC pipe, primer, Royal Crown Cola and a hot dog dragged through the garden.

Maybe giardiniera too, for a change of pace. 

If you live in Chicago, a hardware run includes the opportunity to visit one of the 17 Fixin’ Franks locations that exist in Home Depot’s bright-orange exit vestibules throughout the city and suburbs like a colony of beef-scented egret nests.

But this isn’t a case of a big-box retailer strategically localizing a concession across regions. This is a Chicago thing.

Jordan Shirley (along with his stepmother, Pamela Shirley) is the second-generation owner of Fixin’ Franks, founded in 1998 by his late father, Conley Shirley. Jordan Shirley grew up helping with the business, immersed in hot dog logistics for as long as he can remember.

“I have all these memories of going around with my dad picking up and dropping off pops and chips all over the Chicagoland area. It was great,” Jordan Shirley said. “Some of the employees we still have working for us, I’ve known them since I was 8 years old. The family and camaraderie is still my favorite part of the business. It’s something that I’ve been around for my entire life.”

But the success of Fixin’ Franks was born from his father’s passion for coffee, not encased meats, he said: The original concession at the 1232 W. North Ave. store was a coffee cart. 

It was store management’s suggestion that led to the hot dog pivot.

“He jumped on it, dropped coffee and went all hot dogs,” Jordan Shirley said. “He saw the value in the idea. It’s very, very Chicago. You’re at the hardware store. What, other than a hot dog, do you want on the way out?”

Through some fortuitous corporate expansion and Conley Shirley’s relationships with Home Depot management, Fixin’ Franks saw its star rise alongside the hardware giant.

Today, Fixin’ Franks employs around 50 people, some of whom have been with the company for 20 to 25 years.

Keeping It Local

In building his business from one coffee cart to a series of hot dog stands, Conley Shirley slowly grew the menu with the kind of “know-a-guy” networking that reflects both local producers and local tastes, his son said.

Notably, he originally chose to source his hot dogs and Polish sausages from Eisenberg, and later from Makowski’s Real Sausage Company of Lansing (formerly of Bridgeport). That runs against the grain in a city where Vienna Beef has not just set the hot dog stand color palette but defined the culinary language of how hot dogs are served in Chicago.

“We’ve never carried Vienna, and we pride ourselves on that,” Jordan Shirley said. “Nicole [Makowski, current owner] is fourth generation, and she makes an absolutely incredible product.”

The local producer tradition continued for Jordan Shirley through a chance encounter on a trip to Restaurant Depot. He ran into Jim Graziano, the fourth-generation owner of locally beloved West Loop sandwich shop J.P. Graziano Grocery Company. Shirley introduced himself as a fan and when Graziano asked what restaurant operation he was with, the admiration was mutual.

“I was like, ‘Get the f— out of here’, that’s the coolest thing in the world” Graziano said of that first meeting.

“He was like, ‘Holy sh-t! No way!,” Jordan Shirley recalled, unprompted. 

Kindred souls. More than five years later, you can find Graziano’s namesake giardiniera at every Fixin’ Franks location.

“Jordan told me how much he and his dad loved going [to Graziano’s] for sandwiches. After that, I met his dad — great guy — and we started doing business right away,” Graziano said. “He reminded me of my dad, and that’s one of the highest compliments I can give somebody.” 

What’s On The Menu?

Today’s Fixin’ Franks menu include Italian beef served on bread from D’Amato’s Bakery, elotes in a cup and even the paper-wrapped, machine-extruded, Chicago-style tamale. It tends to surprise those unfamiliar with the deep cuts of Chicago fast food, Jordan Shirley said.

“We have connoisseurs that come to the stands and order them,” he said of the local delicacy. “They think they’re getting, you know, a red or a green tamale wrapped in a corn husk. Well, no, this is what a Chicago tamale is.”

Shirley said his busiest location wavers between the 87th/Dan Ryan stand and the Avondale Fixin’ Franks at the Addison/Kimball Home Depot. And while the professionals keep the stands going day to day, the weekend rush of DIY types to Home Depot reliably make Saturdays and Sundays his busiest of the week. More of those orders than you might expect are Polish sausages, rather than hot dogs.

“I’ll do a classic Chicago dog, replace the sport peppers with giardiniera,” Graziano said. “But I’ll grab a Polish with the mustard and grilled onions and hot giard before I grab a hot dog, to be honest with you.”

Local food writers from both legacy and contemporary platforms give similar advice. But it’s not just the food, it’s also the Fixin’ Franks experience that engenders affection. 

“The best part of getting a Depot Dog, or any Chicago dog, is that the person bringing me is always so excited,” said Jamie Loftus, a writer, comedian and author of the best-selling 2023 book “Raw Dog,” a cross-country examination of hot dog culture. “They’re hanging on my every bite, which I also associate specifically with Chicago. Really wanting to share their love, which is the best part of hot dog culture.”

A Meal For The People

A hot dog in a hardware store doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, even if you’re ordering that dog with a Midwestern accent. Hot Diggitty Dog, Michigan’s answer to Fixin’ Franks, was abruptly shuttered by the hardware chain in 2021 (the stand returned starting in 2024 to some Michigan Home Depot stores). Most Home Depots in other regions just use the exit vestibule to exit.

So what is it that keeps a local hot dog stand part of Home Depot’s larger corporate plan in the Chicago area?

“I feel like Chicago is kind of the city to beat when it comes to regional loyalty to their hot dog,” Loftus said. “You can have someone decades transplanted from Chicago and they’re still willing to sacrifice their eldest to defend the good name of the Chicago hot dog.”

Graziano agrees, calling the chain “just the most Chicago thing ever.” Conley Shirley, he said, hand-built the hot dog stands himself as the business grew and built his supplier network one by one.

“In this industry, in this day and age, places can be very manufactured, very manicured and curated to represent a certain thing. [Conley Shirley] didn’t come in with some sort of business plan and aesthetic in mind. He built what he needed to and the result is the result,” Graziano said. “Kudos to Home Depot for recognizing that and letting it fly. It’s so special because it’s real.”

Home Depot didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another undeniable aspect of the appeal is the price, Loftus said. The most expensive item on the menu is the $9 Italian beef. Hot dogs and Polish sausages are $4.15 and $4.19, respectively. (Prices may vary slightly by location, per the Fixin’ Franks website.)

Loftus rates the quality of the Fixin’ Franks offerings well above another well-known value hot dog.

“I think that the Depot dog is actually doing what the Costco dog thinks it’s doing,” she said. “It’s the rare example of actually holding the line for what I think hot dogs are all about: independent vendors boosted by local word of mouth.”

Feeding Chicago’s Past And Present 

In a city that continues to run on labor and immigration despite growing away from its blue-collar roots, Loftus said that the hot dog and its position within a place so connected to that history is key to its iconic status within Chicago. The Chicago-style hot dog, after all, was brought to Chicago by immigrants and picked up each of its seven non-negotiable toppings neighborhood by neighborhood on its way to the top of the local food chain. 

And at a time of pressure on immigrant communities and, specifically, independent laborers, the hot dog finds itself at the unlikely center of that story. 

“These stories are all interconnected. The hot dog is still very much a dish that we have because of the ability to safely immigrate and thrive,” Loftus said. “To encapsulate that in one lunchtime snack at a hardware store is wild. And it’s at the heart of everything we’re wrestling with right now.

“I think it’s a testament to the city and the city’s connection to its hot dog culture that there’s very few other places that I can think of that would really celebrate and want to uphold [Fixin’ Franks] and I’m very glad for it,” she said.

The growth and evolution of the Fixin’ Franks menu over the years reflects the tastes and experiences that Chicagoans hold close. The elote was added in 2021 by Conley Shirley as a tribute to the city’s legion of street corn vendors, his son said.

Read between the lines and there’s a lesson at the exit to 17 separate parking lots: Love Chicago and it loves you back.

“We had a cult following that has grown into more of a mainstream one,” Jordan Shirley said. “And that’s just the city’s history and the love that the city has for a Chicago dog.”