Photo by: Long-time vendor Jacob Neyman
There’s a new man on campus vying for top dog. Maybe you’ve seen his cart on the way to class. Maybe he tried to sell you a hot dog.
Darren Reilly owns and operates Mercy Dogs, the newest hot dog stand to cater to the DU community since Sept. 7. Mercy Dogs is located on the north side of the Evans Avenue crosswalk, one of the busiest student walking areas on campus and a block south of another hot dog stand, operated by Jacob Neyman, known affectionately to students as “The Hot Dog Guy.”
As vendors, Reilly and Neyman couldn’t be more different. Mercy Dogs offers a variety of hot dogs and bratwursts made by the local Continental Sausage company and condiments, toppings and other sides, with prices ranging from $2 to $4. Reilly’s signature dish, the Mercy Dog, is topped with homemade macaroni and cheese and crushed potato chips.
Neyman, who has been serving DU for seven years, offers more traditional hot dogs like Sabrett New York-style hot dogs, Hebrew National brand hot dogs and Russian all-beef hot dogs, ranging from $1.25 for the standard to a $5 specialty dog.
“I know what people like and how I need to support them,” said Neyman. “I’m not scared of [the] guy [Darren Reilly]. He doesn’t have what I have. People need good hot dogs, cheap hot dogs.”
Reilly, however, doesn’t see himself as the competition, he said.
“He’s doing his thing; I’m doing mine,” said Reilly.
DU students and alumni, however, seem to disagree. A campus-wide event posted on Facebook, called “DON’T BUY FROM THE OTHER HOT DOG GUY,” has students up in arms about Reilly’s presence on campus.
“Every marketplace has a limited number of customers, and thereby a limited number of merchants that can survive,” one man wrote on the Facebook group page. “If you have a vendor doing an excellent job, as Jacob is, then there no reason to dilute the market with another vendor.”
“I won’t give him my business. Why would I when the Hot Dog Guy is still around?” said sophomore Adam Rosen, who anticipates buying a hot dog at least once a week from Neyman this year.
Some DU community members, on the other hand, believe that the competition is healthy.
“(The) new guy’s dogs are better,” another student wrote on the group page. “I’m from Chicago. I know my hot dogs and sausages.”
“By the end of the day, the students have the power of choice,” a different student wrote. “What is wrong with healthy competition?”
Reilly serves hot dogs Monday through Friday, Wednesday excluded, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., unless the weather is poor.
Neyman serves hot dogs Monday through Thursday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
