Wienermobile Finds Way to Garden City Park

The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is an icon that is extremely easy to spot anywhere and this week it took some time to stop at the King Kullen on Jericho Turnpike in Garden City Park.

The Wienermobile is in fact one of six that travels around different regions of the country promoting the brand of deli meat.

The two drivers, known as “hotdoggers,” Theresa Brenner and Ben Urkove operate this particular Wienermobile run a small show for those who happen to drop by, taking pictures of customers in front of the infamous vehicle and sending them as digital postcards to their phones or e-mail addresses.

“Every year they recruit at schools and online,” Brenner said when asked how one actually gets to go behind the wheel of one of the behemoths. “In total there were about 1,300 applicants.” Those applicants then got narrowed down to 100 and, through a series interviews, 12 are chosen – two for each of the 6 Wienermobiles.

The vehicle and drivers then go on 6-month tours throughout the country. Every 6 months, each Wienermobile gets a new team as well as a new region to visit. Though they usually stick to stopping at grocery stores, the Wienermobile can also be seen at retail stores and parades. It is even available to request the Wienermobile at any event, as long as it’s long in advance.

Traveling in the hot dog is, according to Brenner and Urkove, a ton of fun.

“Your day is you wake up, you drive and you finish your day in a different city,” Brenner said.

Though driving around in a giant hotdog is admittedly a bit unconventional, many fans are often curious about what the inside of the Wienermobile looks like – ketchup and mustard pattern carpeting and there are CDs which play 60 different variations of the infamous Oscar Mayer anthem.

The current tour started a month ago in Madison, Wisconsin and has continued through Lansing, Michigan, Scranton, Pennsylvania and Baltimore, Maryland.

Traveling, event planning and essentially living inside a giant hot dog (though they do get to sleep in hotels) is all in a day’s work for Brenner and Urkove. “It’s great to travel,” said Brenner. “You always get to meet new people.”

One of the not so fun parts, though, is parking.

“That’s definitely the hardest part,” Urkove said. “It took us an hour and a half to find parking in downtown Baltimore last week. It’s a 27-foot long hot dog.” Added Brenner: “We have yet to find a parking garage that can clear an 11-foot tall hot dog.”