SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA | It’s a burger! It’s a hot dog! No. It’s a BurgerDog. What started out as an idea in the early 1950s to save money, the Hot Dog Bills’ BurgerDog has become famous for its novelty and has been a longtime staple at the Olympic Club, site of this week’s U.S. Amateur.
“You could liken [the BurgerDog] to the pimento cheese sandwich that they serve at Augusta National in the wax paper, it’s in that elite category,” said Nate Smith, a former PGA Tour pro and reinstated amateur competing at Olympic this week.
Hot Dog Bills has come a long way since its first food cart in 1950. Today, it has three stands on the grounds of the Olympic Club and also spots at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Golf Course and the Silverado Resort in the Napa Valley, not to mention at the Chase Center, home of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
This week at the U.S. Amateur, the family-owned company has seen some of its busiest days in 75 years. While she’s had to constantly hustle, Candy Parrish, daughter of Hot Dog Bills’ co-founders Bill and Billie Parrish, couldn’t be happier.
“I have a lot of fond memories of being out here,” she said. “It’s my whole life. It came before my husband. It came before my kids.”
When Bill and Billie opened Hot Dog Bills in 1950, the small food cart that sold hot dogs and burgers wasn’t supposed to be a main source of income.
“My father was a professional musician and he started this as a side gig to make some more money,” Parrish said. “We lived right across from the Olympic Club in Parkmerced.”
Then Bill, a trumpet player, got the idea for the BurgerDog. The innovation was practical for a couple reasons. For one, why eat a burger with two hands when you can hold a BurgerDog in one and a drink in the other? Second, it was resourceful.
“It’s a lot easier to cook a bunch of little rectangular dogs and toast your hot dog buns on the same grill,” said Max Thrush, Parrish’s son and the director of operations at Hot Dog Bills. “And also, he didn’t have to worry about getting two types of buns, because he did hot dogs already.”
The idea caught on, especially with golfers at the nearby Olympic Club.
“[The original cart] was so close to holes 13, 14, 15 of the Lake Course at Olympic Club that all the golfers would either send their caddies or hike over off the property to get food from him because there’s no food on the golf course,” said Thrush.
But because players were pausing their rounds to wait 10 minutes for a BurgerDog, pace of play became an issue. Instead of asking Hot Dog Bills to move, Olympic Club invited the Parrish family to cook exclusively for the members. And in the early 1950s, the first Hot Dog Bills stand at Olympic Club was set up near the Lake Course’s 10th green, where it remains today.
The Parrishes quickly familiarized themselves with the members at Olympic.
“I have a lot of memories of the way it was before the stands were built as they are now,” Parrish said. “I remember it being homey and warm, because [Bill] had this little, tiny stand. I remember him playing the trumpet for the people who would come down the fairway. He’d know their birthdays.”
Soon, Parrish started helping out her parents.
“I had to come home every day and wash my hair,” she said. “I didn’t like how I always smelled like a burger.”
Parrish didn’t know initially if she wanted to make Hot Dog Bills her life’s work and moved away after high school to do her own thing. But when her parents were ready to retire in the 1980s, Parrish decided to move back and take over.
“The rest is really history,” Parrish said.
Since taking charge, Parrish has seen many USGA championships, including three U.S. Opens (1987, 1998, 2012).
“I did my first U.S. Open in 1987 when I was five months pregnant with Max,” she said.
Big championships bring lots of customers, but this week’s U.S. Amateur was unlike anything anyone in the Parrish/Thrush family had ever seen. Especially around lunchtime, people waited in line for 10 minutes or more to try the famous BurgerDog, which was selling for $14.
“These have been the busiest days I’ve ever seen out there,” Thrush said. “It’s been absolutely insane.”
“It’s exhilarating and fun. It’s absolutely awesome to see so many people out there who want to try our burger.” – Candy Parrish
Thrush estimated the grillmasters at all three locations cooked 1,000 or more BurgerDogs each … before match play began on Wednesday. With the high demand, the BurgerDog employees are working 12-hour days. Hot Dog Bills needed extra help, and Parrish, who had stepped back from running the business, came back to work.
“It’s exhilarating and fun,” Parrish said. “It’s absolutely awesome to see so many people out there who want to try our burger.”
Smith likes to get his BurgerDogs with ketchup, mustard, relish and pickles.
“I’ve had plenty in the past and I’m a huge fan,” he said. “For me it’s a 10.0, they don’t do it any better than they do the BurgerDog here at Olympic Club.”
If the late Bill and Billie could see what their company has become today, Parrish knows they would be proud.
“[My dad] was such a bohemian and always thought outside the box,” Parrish said. “I think he’d be extremely proud of both of his grandsons who have decided to continue the legacy, to continue to keep it a family business, and keep it at its core roots. I think that he would be absolutely amazed by how they’ve changed it, too.”