This hot dog has its day

No matter where he travels in the world, John Plano's first stop upon returning home is Gina's Hot Dogs & Beef in Bensenville.

"Ralphie puts his heart and soul into this place," the Wood Dale man said this week, gobbling down a red-hot.

The folks at Vienna Beef feel the same way. The unassuming hot dog place that has graced the corner of Irving Park Road and Spruce Avenue in Bensenville since 1976 is now in the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Superdawg, Gene & Jude's, and Wolfy's.

Don't know those names? Then clearly you haven't lived in the Chicago area for long. They are the benchmarks by which all other hot dogs are measured.

Now Gina's is one of the gang.

"It came as a complete surprise," said Elena Auriemma, who opened the business in 1976 with her husband, Frank. These days, son Ralph runs the stand on a day-to-day basis and his customers swear he never leaves.

One day this spring some executives with Vienna walked into the business, asked some questions and surprised the crew with the news. They were headed for the Hall of Fame.

Not that the honor is likely to prompt a revamp of the place or anything.

Little has changed since the family first took over 32 years ago.

"Well," Ralph Auriemma says, craning his head to look around the small eat-in area, "these white walls were dark brown paneling back then."

When the Auriemmas bought the stand, they let their children choose the name with instructions to find something Italian and short. The four eldest came up with "Gina," their 5-year-old baby sister, who seemed to fit the criteria. She was Italian, after all. And short.

She even still helps out on occasion, as does her sister Ann and brother Joe.

As far as they're concerned, they just run a hot dog stand they way they think it should be run. Period. If you want ketchup on your hot dogs, you'll get it, even if they disagree with the concept. They draw the line at tomatoes, though, because Elena believes they make soggy buns.

But what caught the eye of the folks at Vienna?

Someone in the company recommended them, explained Bob Schwartz, Vienna Beef executive vice president. Not that recommendations were sufficient.

Hot dog stands worth their mustard must be standing for at least 20 years, Vienna hot dog clients (obviously), a staple in the community, show a dedication to their surroundings and have a loyal following. Gina's simply fired on all cylinders, Schwartz said.

"For an area like Bensenville, that's been industrialized and a little blighted, to see a little neighborhood place that's still there, that's really saying something," Schwartz said. "He is far from one of our largest customers and that's not the criteria. If it was, we'd just give it to Portillo's and be done with it."

Instead, one gets the feel walking into Gina's that Ralph, or Ralphie as everyone calls him, knows everybody that walks through the door. Indeed, one afternoon, he seemed to call at least half the customers by their first names.

Now that's a characteristic the 40-plus Chicago-area Hall of Famers share along with about a dozen others from throughout the Midwest and Florida.

"When you walk into many of those places, it's almost like the TV show 'Cheers,'" Schwartz said. "You know the customers, they know your name and you're not a number."

And they tend not to subscribe to modern marketing philosophies. Ralphie really wasn't joking about the circa 1970s decor.

"They're not necessarily conceived with the great marketing input of today," Schwartz said. "They're done by the seat of the pants - and they're more fun that way."

Here's the beef

These suburban hot dog stands have landed a spot in the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame:

Fratellos, Route 12 and Route 120, Lakemoor

Gina's Hot Dogs and Beef, 1222 W. Irving Park Road, Bensenville

Jimmy's Place, 642 W. Northwest Hwy., Arlington Heights

Nana's Hot Dogs, 1102 E. Irving Park Road, Streamwood

Peep's Hot Dogs, 1600 N. Rand Road, Arlington Heights

Sammies, 799 W. Belvidere Road, Grayslake

Tony's Steamers, 27W213 Geneva Road, Winfield

Wiener Take All, 1117 Weiland Road, Buffalo Grove