‘Midge’s Hot Dogs’ Gets Rolling In Wheeling
Melissa Rebholz wanted to bring something back to Wheeling from her travels around the globe. The owner/operator of Midge's Kitchen, she has long appreciated the growing number of sit-down restaurants in the downtown area. Yet she wanted to see more of the quick-hit lunch options she enjoys elsewhere, like the taco stands in Mexico and the hot dog stands in New York City.
So Rebholz has branched out from Midge's Kitchen to offer Midge's Hot Dogs, a hot dog cart that can be seen during lunch hours and at various festivals around town.
Rebholz received some of her inspiration for the hot dog cart from the revitalization of Wheeling's downtown.
"I just thought that, with all of this development happening downtown, maybe it would be nice for Wheeling to also have street food," Rebholz said. "It's fast. A lot of guys drive by in work trucks and just pull up, get a couple of hot dogs and drive away."
The cart was fabricated in Jackson, Michigan. Rebholz ordered it in February and waited for about 10 weeks before she was able to drive up to Michigan and drive off with her new cart.
Word of mouth has been her best sales driver so far. Rebholz said there have been afternoons that a customer would pull up to her cart because their wife had just driven by and texted them about the new lunch option. Other times, someone working downtown will leave their office and ask about her availability, because they want to let their coworkers know.
That's great, Rebholz said. It helps her interact with the community, which she isn't able to do when cooking meals for Midge's Kitchen.
"Personally, it's been refreshing," she said. "With Midge's Kitchen, doing the pick-up meals that I do, I just work alone in my kitchen. So it's been nice to be outside, get fresh air and meet people."
Midge's Hot Dogs offers both regular and vegan hot dogs, cooking them with a combination of boiling and finishing them on the grill. Customers can get the usual toppings like ketchup, mustard, chili and cheese. Rebholz also offers a cabbage and beet relish -- "kind of like sauerkraut, but a little sweeter," she said -- and a corn relish she found in a cookbook called "Ohio garden relish."
Rebholz also uses the stand as an opportunity to spread her culinary wings, offering a special each week. Last week, it was a Hawaiian dog, topped with teriyaki mayonnaise, pineapple chutney and potato sticks. At the Wheeling Arts Festival, she offered nacho chili Frito dogs.
"A lot of people have been trying the specials," she said. "It's super fun."
Midge's Hot Dogs can be found around downtown Wheeling three to four days a week, Rebholz said, and at various festivals, including this weekend's Heritage Blues Festival at Heritage Port. A schedule for the month can be found on both the Midge's Kitchen Facebook and Instagram pages.