The Dog House, an iconic Delaware landmark since 1952, has new owners & a breakfast menu

Chris Taggart and Brian Kirwin, stewards of The Dog House, one of Delaware's most iconic places to eat, have found acquiring a landmark Delaware roadside restaurant requires the proper amount of reverence and a heaping side of diplomacy.

When the business partners purchased the 72-year-old Wilmington Manor business, near New Castle, three years ago this December, their goal was to honor and celebrate the legacy of the cash-only, hot dog palace that was used as the model for the original Charcoal Pit on Concord Pike.

The Dog House at 200 N. Dupont Highway, known to sell up to 3,000 dogs a week to locals and travelers during its busy summer months, is steeped in nostalgia.

Devoted customers and longtime employees love that little has changed at the business where a throwback counter with 17 original stools has remained in place since 1962.

But at the same time, Taggart and Kirwin know The Dog House is not a museum. The men, who work together at US Foods, an American food service distributor, understand that some changes, even slight ones, are good for business.

Pizza and subs were halted about two years ago when the foods stopped selling during the pandemic. The area where those items were made was gutted and new ceilings and floors were installed.

In its place, about a year ago, the partners introduced an area for customers to pick up breakfast, made and served from 6 until 10:30 a.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It's run by manager Rich Couch, whose family owned the 24-hour Tom Jones Diner in Brookhaven, Pennsylvania, for more than 40 years.

Milkshakes, once a staple at the business, were brought back about three years ago. The restaurant's signs and overall interior have been freshened up and the eatery now uses DoorDash and GrubHub delivery services.

More changes are coming.

Plans are in the works to increase the catering and by early 2024 to finally allow customers to pay with credit cards, a first in the restaurant's more than seven decades in business.

And the partners are scouting for a second location, possibly in Claymont or Dover.

The history of The Dog House

Harry S. Truman was president when Lou Sloan and his three brothers, Sam, Marty, and Aaron, began making plans for The Dog House.

The Sloan brothers, who opened and operated the former Sloan’s Camera Center on Wilmington’s Ninth Street, knew little about the restaurant industry in 1950 when they decided to open their first food operation, an ice cream shop known as the Dairy Whip.

The shop was a success and it spurred them on.

After first visiting restaurants in several cities, two years later the brothers decided to create another food business next door to the Dairy Whip. This one would feature split, foot-long hot dogs, cooked on a flat-top grill with all the trimmings.

The concept was already a success in nearby Baltimore.

It was a gamble. At that time, the four-lane Dupont Highway where The Dog House sits at Stahl Avenue was only two lanes with trees growing in the median.

Yet, it wasn't long before hot dogs turned out to be even more profitable than ice cream. The brothers eventually tore down the Dairy Whip to expand The Dog House.

Looking to capitalize on their Dog House success, in 1956, the Sloan brothers then opened The Charcoal Pit, an archetypical American hamburger joint on Concord Pike.

They used The Dog House as their model.

Initially, “The Pit,” as it’s known to longtime Delawareans, had a long counter with a view of Concord Pike and about four tables. It was remodeled just three months after opening and more tables were installed.

Lou Sloan and his brother Marty sold the flagship Charcoal Pit in 1986 to developer Louis J. Capano Jr. for an undisclosed price.

“It’s our time to let it go,” Sloan told The News Journal. But he held onto The Dog House, which he called his “baby.”

While he lived in Rehoboth Beach with his wife, Peggy, Sloan continued to commute to the Wilmington Manor hot dog eatery over the years as needed.

“It keeps me young,” he told The News Journal. He sold the business in 2011 to longtime employee and manager Mishler H. "Mitch" Reinhart who had been at The Dog House since he was 13.

Sloan's daughter Robin Sloan Densten told Delaware Online/The News Journal her father, who died in 2016, was delighted when President Barack Obama visited The Charcoal Pit in 2014 for a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake.

Obama told diners then Vice President Joe Biden had recommended the Delaware eatery.

But Densten said what the public didn’t know was during Obama’s visit to The Charcoal Pit, Biden and his son Beau, longtime friends of the Sloan family, were lunching at The Dog House with little fanfare.

The Dog House keeps going

Reinhart kept The Dog House going, the same as it was for years. Taggart and Kirwin got to know him as a US Foods customer.

"Mitch was hyperfocused on quality and food safety," Taggart said, as well as traditions.

The Dog House then and now only uses hot dogs, blended with pork and beef, that are made especially for the business by Dietz & Watson, a Philadelphia premium meat and cheese family-owned company operating since 1939.

All of the rolls used at the roadside eatery are still made by Serpe & Son Bakery, an Elsmere business that opened the same year as The Dog House.

When Reinhart died in 2019 at age 81, family members were running the business. When they were ready to sell in December 2020, Taggart and Kirwin were ready to purchase the building and restaurant.

"We always wanted to work for ourselves and we wanted to keep the traditions of The Dog House," Taggart said.

What hasn't changed at The Dog House

Taggart said he has brought Chris White, a longtime friend, to become a Dog House's manager and to help "tighten up the ship." White is a veteran of several Wilmington restaurants including the Columbus Inn and Kid Shelleen's.

Taggart and Kirwin didn't want to change much on the menu.

The Dog House still roasts turkey for its sandwiches and staff members handpick the meat. Hot dogs are split and prepared on a 15-plus-year-old, well-seasoned grill in full view of customers and then they are "dressed" at the "board" with toppings like cheese, sauerkraut, chili, bacon, diced onions, a salad mix, tomato, ketchup or yellow or spicy mustard.

Consistency and cleanliness are key.

"Some people eat here every day," Taggart said. "They're just the nicest people and they have embraced the new ownership. They've been very supportive."

The partners hire students from nearby high schools, but they also have retained several longtime employees.

Kim Davis, an art teacher at William Penn High School, has been working at The Dog House on and off for the past 23 years. She started when she was a junior in high school in 1985 and now other employees jokingly call her "the hot dog whisperer."

"It's nice that some things don't change," Davis said. "That's what makes this such a neat place. It's the same as it's been. People like a little bit of nostalgia."

Kirwin said he likes coming into The Dog House and seeing several generations of family occupying the stools. He said a family from New Jersey always stops in the summer on their way to a yearly vacation in Bethany Beach. His three boys, now grown, still like to travel from their South Jersey home for birthday meals at The Dog House.

Taggart said the partners are currently eyeing expansion in "a busy, high-traffic area." While they've thought about the U.S. 202 corridor, he said it's "not the right demographic for our product." The Claymont or Dover areas are more in line Taggart said.

For now, Taggart said he just enjoys watching customers grabbing a stool at the counter, getting a foot-long hot dog with cheese and chili ($5.50), a milkshake ($4.95) and maybe some onion rings ($4.75) and enjoying The Dog House experience.

"Everyone's welcome," he said. "There's something to be said for the simple style."

Contact Patricia Talorico at ptalorico@delawareonline.com or 302-324-2861 and follow her on X (Twitter) @pattytalorico Sign up for her  Delaware Eats newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Iconic Dog House has new owners and a breakfast menu and might expand