The Ventura Hot Dog Cart
The Ventura Hot Dog Cart
The Ventura Hot Dog Cart is one of DreamMaker Hot Dog Cart’s® most popular models. The Ventura, along with its little sister, The Malibu, were the first two carts of the many great models that DreamMaker manufactures today. They were both designed to be similar to the original, traditional “New York Style” street vendor hot dog cart. This original “stand-behind” street vending “hot dog push cart” design all started way back in the early 1900s. We took that original design and had DreamMaker’s talented engineering team augment it with an amazing treatment of modern technology. The Ventura has many great features that are extremely well designed. This model has evolved over the years into what you might say is the perfect hot dog cart! We continue advancing our vending cart technology to build even better food vending carts and concession trailers.
With its six large, deep steam pans, The Ventura has terrific capacity to serve hot dogs, sausages, brats and lots of other great street food items. There is even plenty of room for hot condiment items such as sauerkraut, chili or cheese (always check with your health department for local rules). The Ventura Hot Dog Cart is powered with LP Gas (liquid propane fuel) that is inexpensive and burns quite efficiently. The hot dog cart is designed to utilize the most common, standard style 20 pound propane tank. The tank is readily available for purchase. This is the exact same tank that most backyard propane barbecue grills use. You can either get your propane tank “refilled” at special locations that sell propane fuel, or you can simply trade your empty tank in for an already refilled tank. This program of exchanging tanks is very common and is available at most home improvement stores such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. I believe that this method is more popular because it is faster, more convenient, and the cost is very reasonable. The actual propane tank is not included with the hot dog cart purchase, as freight regulations prevent shipment of flammable gas tanks. They can be purchased at most home improvement locations. If you will be picking up your hot dog vending cart at our showroom located in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida, we sell them as well.
Speaking of propane tanks, the standard Ventura model holds one standard tank, but it can be optionally outfitted with Double Tank Mounting Baskets if you would like to have greater capacity readily available on-board. And, you will not have to exchange your tanks as often. In addition, you can have an optional “auto-change-over” propane regulator system installed. This special regulator system can automatically switch over to the second reserve propane tank when the first is empty. You’ll never skip a beat or lose sales while having to shut down just to change a tank. After the regulator automatically switches tanks, it will indicate to you that the first tank is empty. This allows you to exchange the empty tank at a much more convenient time. The tremendous value with this dual tank automatic system is that you will not be interrupted during your prime selling hours to change a propane tank when it runs out of fuel. It’s a really great option for those busy locations and special events. When you are busy, time is money!
The Ventura has a very large “bread box” dry storage compartment that places all of your buns and chips within close and convenient reach to help maintain a very efficient workflow. The back wall of the upper storage compartment can optionally be fitted with a clear Lexan window if you would like to utilize these shelves as a display case. This can be a very nice option if you would like to have buns, chips, candy or other hard goods on display there. The back of the breadbox can also be fitted with smooth steel Powder Coated Bread Box Back if you would like to be able to have magnets stick there (magnets do not stick to stainless steel or aluminum). Refrigerator magnets always sell very well in touristy type locations and they are quite inexpensive. They are a nice upsell add-on item. The smooth flat steel is protected with special process called “powder coat” that is exceptionally durable, more so than regular “paint”. The smooth panel is powder coated in the color of your choice. This option is also popular because you can have inexpensive vinyl lettering applied to it easily. Some owners like to have their company name or logo placed there on the front of their cart. It always looks great with the nice rich color.
There is even more storage in another large compartment on the rear of the cart that can hold dry goods, extra condiments, soda, water and so on. All of the storage compartment access doors on the body of our hot dog vending carts utilize very high quality, “solid stainless steel” door hinges and latches. Our latches are lockable for security as well. This first class hardware is very important on a professional mobile food vending cart. These doors, hinges and latches are periodically exposed to the elements and are in use continually. If the hardware quality is not “extremely high”, these hinges and latches will corrode, rust, wear out and break. The cart would not be functional for very long. To get the quality that is required, we literally use some of the most expensive hinges and latches available. Some of our competitors utilize only standard steel (think rust) or zinc plated latches that only mildly resist corrosion. One hot dog cart manufacturer even uses household window sash latches that are intended for interior use! We want you to be aware that the hardware on a mobile food cart is an important concern. If you are shopping around, ask a lot of very specific questions… You will be glad that you did!
- The Ventura Hot Dog Cart has a large integrated ice cooler that will keep product and beverages ice-cold.
The Ventura Hot Dog Cart has a very large integrated internal “ice bin” cooler that can hold an impressive supply of food product to keep you selling and serving all day! The high-tech insulation materials that are used in the manufacturing of our coolers and the thick insulated hatch door will keep your product ice-cold. Our ice bin coolers are all plumbed with a bottom drain valve that permits draining off the melted ice water as needed. The exterior drain connection is complete with a hose fitting so that it can be attached to a standard garden hose and drained away from the cart or into a bucket or jug if required. This can be particularly helpful if you are working a special event or festival where draining water onto the pavement, sidewalk or ground would not be permitted or may not be safe.
The Ventura vending cart comes standard with undeniably the best “water system” in the industry. The water system that I am referring to is for the hand washing sink that is required by all health departments that license hot dog carts. Sometimes you will need more than one sink depending upon your state or local health department’s rules. If you are to be serving food to the public, you must be able to wash and sanitize your hands regularly. In order to wash your hands properly (and quickly) you will need a faucet that can deliver water with plenty of flow with real pressure, just like in your home. A slow drizzle with no pressure will not do a good job and you certainly will not be able to do it quickly. Some of our competitors use small inexpensive pumps that are not designed for a faucet type application. They are not designed to handle the back-pressure when the faucet is turned on and off and they end up in trouble. We utilize a special style ShurFlo® brand water pump that addresses the issue of “back-pressure” with an integrated by-pass valve and back-flow prevention that keeps the pump in good working order. Those simple little “aquarium” pumps that some other manufacturers use are not designed to deliver water for a hand faucet. Some manufacturers use no pump at all. They use “gravity” to drain water from a little water tank up inside the bread box area that basically drizzles slowly downhill to the faucet. There is no pressure at all since it is just draining from a tank about 6 inches above the sink. Since the tank has to be higher than the faucet (Newton’s Law of gravity), it consumes most of the storage space needed for buns, chips and condiments.
DreamMaker has researched and designed a powerful water system that solves all of these problems in a big way. We set out to do it right, and we have done exactly that. At the heart of our water system is a special high quality ShurFlo® brand water pump that is powered by a rechargeable 12 volt battery. This is not any ordinary water pump either. It is designed for commercial food service use. It has NSF certification and it is UL Listed. The water pump itself is protected with a separate resettable circuit breaker. This special pump is an “on-demand” pressure sensing style pump. What this means is that you do not need to turn on a switch every time you need to use the faucet. You simply turn on the water faucet knob (as in a house) and the water flows with pressure automatically. The water pump turns itself on and off automatically when you use the faucet. This saves you time and makes hand washing quick and easy!
Rounding out our awesome water system is high pressure, reinforced Goodyear® brand water hoses that are designed for food service (yes, NSF certified again). We use genuine polypropylene water tanks that are also approved for food service (5 gallons for the fresh “potable” water and 7.5 gallons for the waste “grey” water). Hot water is provided by an internal passive heating system that is powered by the propane burner. It has a capacity of approximately ½ gallon of reserve hot water in the heating reservoir. Finally, the water exits through a beautiful chrome ProFlo® brand mixing faucet that was chosen because of its reputation for quality and reliability. When we set out to design our water system, we knew exactly what we wanted to achieve which was, perfect water flow, water pressure and reliability. Mission accomplished!
The body and chassis of the Ventura Hot Dog Cart is extremely durable and solid. Let me tell you a little more about this important aspect of our food vending carts. First off and very importantly, our vending cart body sits atop a custom-built steel box tube chassis which is then precision welded together. We do not utilize the red Chinese “bolt together” angle iron frames that are quite common in the hot dog cart industry. They certainly are cheap, but they’re never square and they are held together with dozens of nuts and bolts that require constant maintenance. The heavy gauge steel box tubing material for our chassis frames are cut and precision mig welded on our high-tech, custom-built frame jigs by DreamMaker’s talented craftsmen! The frame jig is a special custom-built piece of equipment that permits the precise alignment of all of the components that comprise the entire chassis frame while it is being welded together. It is very important for a trailer chassis, such as under a hot dog cart, to be properly designed, properly welded, perfectly square and properly assembled to ensure that your cart will always tow very easily and perfectly straight. I know from experience how hard it is to tow a trailer that simply will not track correctly. It takes far too much concentration and more importantly, it can be dangerous. After construction, each of our frames is individually hand checked for quality welds, proper bracket alignment, and trueness (properly square). Finally, the frame gets coated with a heavy-duty corrosion and rust inhibitor. Once the frame is treated it moves on to final chassis assembly. The frame is mated to the other high quality chassis components such as the leaf springs, axles, hubs and tires, towing connector, tail lights and electrical system. In many respects this precision process is exactly how high-performance race car chassis are designed and constructed. And just like with a race car, our chassis are designed to perform perfectly, be incredibly solid, be perfectly square and hold up under the most demanding environments for many, many years. I suppose that it might not be a coincidence that our shop foreman actually does design and build race cars! Starting with a high quality frame and chassis is obviously an extremely important part of building our popular Ventura Hot Dog Cart.
The body of The Ventura Hot Dog Cart is designed with function and durability in mind. It is primarily manufactured with two different types of high quality sheet-metal and quality stainless steel rivets. All of the surface areas, the breadbox storage compartment and the corner trim moldings, are manufactured with genuine 18 gauge, #304 food grade stainless steel. Real, genuine 18 gauge stainless steel is a very thick, heavy gauge metal. We use this heavy gauge material because it is extremely durable and holds up over time. It creates a countertop and shelves that are solid and sturdy. While some hot dog cart manufacturers have given in to the temptation of saving money on inferior, much thinner materials, such as 20 or 22 gauge metal. DreamMaker Hot Dog Carts will not sacrifice quality for profits! Remember, when it comes to the thickness of sheet-metal, the smaller the number the thicker the material. The term “18 Gauge” has become a common “buzz word” of sorts in the food vending cart industry, but we want you to be assured that we will never sacrifice our product quality or reputation to save money on inferior quality sheet-metal. Quality in, quality out! As a side note, being one of the largest manufacturers of hot dog and food vending carts, we purchase hundreds of thousands of pounds of stainless steel sheet-metal from our vendors every year. This massive “buying power” allows us to purchase the best, top quality, genuine “18 gauge” metal for a lower cost than our smaller competitors pay for thinner, lesser quality.
The side body panels on the Ventura Hot Dog Cart are precision “punched” from heavy gauge polished diamond plate aluminum sheet-metal. As you may know, and surely you’ve seen plenty of it out on the roadways, some of the most rugged professional and industrial parts on vehicles and trailers are manufactured from textured “diamond plate” material. You quite often see it on custom truck bumpers, pickup truck boxes and many other places where durability is extremely important. It has a beautiful texture that sparkles in the sunlight and attracts attention from passersby. I can promise you, that is a VERY important feature. You want to be seen and noticed by as many people as possible! The business is foot traffic… Lots of foot traffic and visibility! You definitely don’t want to blend into the landscape! And, because of its rugged exterior texture, it resists almost all bumps and scratches. With simple care and maintenance, your cart will continue to gleam in the sunlight and draw compliments. It is truly a professional quality material that is perfect for the durability that a mobile vending hot dog cart requires.
As another body panel option, if you like the “beautifully colored” powder coated concept that we discussed previously on the bread box back, we can apply that color treatment to your entire Ventura hot dog cart with our Powder Coated Color Body Upgrade. As I have seen many, in nearly every possible color, I can attest to the fact that it creates a truly amazing hot dog cart experience. This is an especially good option if you are considering a “branded”, multiple cart operation. The branding possibilities are endless with simple vinyl graphics from a small sign shop. Add a color coordinated custom printed umbrella and you will have created a complete branded operation that nobody will soon forget! Add some good quality hot dogs, nice soft buns, some fresh condiments and you will have everything that you need to create a steady flow of repeat customers with your beautifully branded, colorful Ventura Hot Dog Cart. DreamMaker can customize the Ventura of your dreams today!
The Ventura Hot Dog Cart is a fantastic piece of professional vending equipment that can really get the job done. Call us today to discuss how we can help make YOUR dream come true! 1-800-408-1802
