We’ve spent the last two months searching for the biggest Hot Dog fans in all of Chicagoland, and well… we found ‘em!
The Vienna Beef Hot Dog Stand Challenge was designed to help drum up business for local Hot Dog Stands after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hot Dog lovers were challenged to visit as many participating Hot Dog Stands as possible over the course of 8 weeks in an effort to be crowned “Top Dog.” There were a lot of other accolades and prizes to collect along the journey as well -- Weekly Wieners received trucker hats, whereas Neighborhood Mayors won custom t-shirts and Hot Dogs.
In two months, there were nearly 28,500 Hot Dog Stand check-ins as thousands of local Chicagoans participated in our challenge. While the competition was fierce, only one ‘Top Dog’ prevailed, hitting all 367 Hot Dog Stands in just 35 days. Learn more about our winner below!
Top Dog, Stephanie Esposito
Stephanie initially joined the Vienna Beef Hot Dog Stand Challenge after her boyfriend mentioned it to her in passing. After 18 months of quarantine, Stephanie thought it was the perfect thing to do to pass time. Within two days, she had visited several Hot Dog Stands, now determined not just to participate, but to win.
According to Stephanie, she created a spreadsheet with all of the stands, grouping them together by location. This way, she could easily cross off the stands she had visited, and visit multiple stands in one go. Stephanie said that throughout the challenge, she put over 9,000 miles on her car and needed to get a few oil changes.
All of Stephanie’s hard work paid off and she was crowned our Top Dog at our awards ceremony last week. As part of her prize, Stephanie received her Top Dog trophy, pictured above, a Top Dog t-shirt, a $1,000 gift card to the Vienna Beef website, and VIP tickets to various Chicagoland entertainment venues next year.
Tell Stephanie congratulations in the comments below!
Introducing Our Top Dog!
