It was a late Thursday afternoon. I had been anticipating this all week, a chance to speak one on one with the iconic Doug Sohn, creator and owner of Hot Doug’s in Avondale. But when I walked in, it was completely deserted. Not a soul was in there. It was surreal to think about. The most popular hot dog stand in the city, one that is notorious for long waits, was empty. I thought I was the first person to set eyes on such an unusual thing.  And then I realized they had been closed for about twenty minutes. Hmmm, but I digress. Doug had just finished closing down his sausage emporium. He sat down with me and offered some words of wisdom completely unprompted, “Don’t own a restaurant.” I knew I was in for a treat.

Hahaha. Its funny you say that. I remember one time I was waiting in line and the person in front of me asked you why there isn’t a second location. Your snap response was, “Have you ever owned a restaurant?”

Usually questions like that are why don’t you do this or you should have this. Ya know certain things that people think are helping me with my business. My usual response is “I’ll tell you what. Own a business for a year, doesn’t even have to be a restaurant and then tell me if you want to ask me this question again.” It is remarkable the difference between being the employee and being the owner. And you can always tell when someone who is asking those questions has never owned their own business and certainly has never worked in a restaurant.

Why do you still put all the time in up front? Seems like business is booming and you could take a backseat on the front of house.

It’s the part I like. It is a combination of things. It is sort of the curse and blessing of naming it after myself. I certainly do not put myself in the category of celebrity chef. Things like a Bobby Flay restaurant, you know he is not there. I get the concept but it is one of those things were I think the person should be there. And like I said it is the part of the job that I enjoy. I love the interaction with the customers, I like making people laugh and smile. There is definitely an aspect of control freak; I am not going to deny that. But I think that is important in any business, restaurants in particular.

Do people come in and not get it? They look at the specials board and think you are on crack?

Yeah and that’s fine. I have no problem with people just ordering off of the regular menu and coming in for a hot dog. That was the reason I started this place, I wanted to make a really good hot dog. My feeling is, ya know we don’t have hamburgers, we don’t have pizza puffs, we don’t have gyros, so we cant be everything to everybody. And it’s a huge city; I only need to capture a tiny tiny percentage of the population to make a living and for the restaurant to be a success. If you don’t get it, there are 8000 other places to choose from and I am a firm believer that you should go to where you feel comfortable and you like the food and it makes you happy, and that’s fine. But if you like what we are doing then come here.

What is the biggest difference between Hot Doug’s in Roscoe Village and Hot Doug’s Avondale?

I am older and crankier. That’s about it. The real difference is the physical plant, we can do way more here. We have literally ten times more storage space, we have a great prep kitchen, we can seat way more and the actually building, the infrastructure of it is significantly better. And we really expanded our menu as a result of that. I miss the neighborhood feel, we are defiantly more of a destination spot now then we were then because there is shopping and people are out n’ about and it is much more residential in Roscoe Village. So you are definitely coming here, it is not “oh I happen to be in the neighborhood.” But mostly I am older and crankier and more bitter.

Did you have any doubts when you first opened up and reopened?

Oh My God. When we first opened up my goal was to stay open for 6 months, and that was 9 years ago. I used to live a couple blocks from the old store and everyday of the first few months I would walk to work and going through my head I was always calculating, could I sell it? Realistically could I walk away? Ya know, like really how much debt, how much trouble would I really be in? It took a long while. It took at least the first 6 months till I started feeling relatively comfortable and I didn’t even pay myself for the first year. We were paying our bills from the get go but actually making any sort of living took some time. There were boatloads of doubt. And someone recently asked me, “Did you ever in vision this?” And I thought how could anyone ever invision this? When I step back and try to be as objective as possible and see what our customers see, it is just mind boggling.

Do you have any advice you could offer to a young Chicago entrepreneur?

I do encourage people every so often to start their own business because I do not want to be the only knucklehead. You can study it, and you can get an MBA and go through everything and take all the steps but until you actually open a business and the bills start showing up and you have to spend the money, you have no idea what it is going to feel like. While I knew it was going to be stressful, I had no idea what that stress was going to feel like. I had never been through it, and it is unbelievable how crazy it is.

The benefits to being an employee are if the building catches on fire, you walk away and try and find another job, nothing is on you. But when someone leaves here and says “that was amazing or that was a great lunch,” that’s me. There is no greater feeling from a career standpoint than that. The benefits come to me and not someone else. And it is a great great feeling. When the first one burned down, my first thought was “I’m out.” And we were closed for almost 6 months and my girlfriend said “You couldn’t work for someone else.” And I thought “of course I can, I have done it before.” Then we opened this place and like two months in I knew I could never work for anyone ever again. My goal now is to never go on a real job interview. I might be covered there.

Can I get a sausage named after me?

You look a little like Shakira but not enough. Every so often we have done it in silent auctions for people, if you’re a charity and want to garnish some serious money we have certificates for being Celebrity Sausage of the Day. I don’t know if you know this but the ranking is number one, Noble Prize, two, Celebrity Sausage, three, Academy award. That’s how the hierarchy goes. It is not easy to obtain my friend

I am a Jew, well I am Jew-ish. So mine would be a scallop and lobster sausage with a Manischewitz reduction.

Perfect, wrapped in bacon. Served on the bun of affliction.

What does the future hold?

I have no idea. Didn’t think I would be here at this point. I just make sure I am getting through month to month. So far I am still totally digging it and it is fun and I will keep doing it until I stop. I really have no desire to expand. This is it, this is the last one, you are looking at it. So we will see what happens.