De Soto has a new food spot – FatDogs at 519 E. Main St.
The eatery opened on June 5 and serves hot dogs, smash burgers, fries and more.
One of its specialties is the fatdog. It is not your typical hot dog.
“Our fatdog is smoked brisket and burnt ends made into a hot dog,” said Kirk Corse, 56, who owns FatDogs, as well as the neighboring Screens and Threads screen-printing business, with his wife Mandy, 46. “The dog is 100 percent beef.”
Mandy said the brisket is smoked by a De Soto man, the barbecue sauce is made in St. Louis, and they buy their produce from Orlando Boy’s Produce in De Soto.
She said it’s important for them to support local companies.
“Now with this (fatdog), it already has a lot of flavor just by itself,” Kirk said. “Little kids just want a hot dog with nothing on it, so kids love them. And then when you start to add something to it: cheese, pulled pork and barbecue sauce, it will absolutely drive you out of your mind.”
He recommends the BBQ pork dog, which is a fatdog with bacon, pulled pork, barbecue sauce and coleslaw.
The most popular hot dog right now is the chili cheese dog: a fatdog with chili (no beans), cheese and onions. That should not be confused with a coney dog, which has chili, mustard and onions.
The cowboy dog is a fatdog topped with baked beans, slaw and a fried egg.
While those are regular menu items, the Corses hope to offer a different specialty dog each week. Ideas included a Sonora dog or a Baja dog.
In addition to fatdogs, the establishment serves regular (all beef) hot dogs and beer brats. There’s also the “dogs dog,” a “chopped up fatdog for your puppy.”
Customers may choose a wide range of free condiments to dress up their hot dogs, like ketchup, mustard, jalapenos, barbecue sauce, relish and slaw. An extra charge is added for sauerkraut, chili, a fried egg, pulled pork, baked beans and cheese sauce.
However, FatDogs is not just about the dog.
The eatery’s smash burgers and French fries have been a hit, too, Mandy said.
A smash burger is a 4-ounce, all-beef patty with cheese, grilled onions and homemade secret smash sauce. A hay stack burger is a double smash topped with fries and covered in cheese sauce. You can even add baked beans, chili or pulled pork.
Fries come either plain, with chili and cheese or with pulled pork.
The restaurant offers snowballs for dessert. A snowball is a scoop of vanilla ice cream covered in shaved ice
Kirk said he and Mandy have been talking about opening FatDogs for 12-15 years.
“We had an old basset hound we named FatDog. She was a big, fat thing, and we always thought it would be kind of cool to open a hot dog stand named FatDogs,” he said.
Originally from California, the Corses, who have six children, moved from the western part of the U.S. to Summer Set Lake just outside De Soto about eight years ago.
Kirk said other than marrying each other, moving to the Midwest was the best decision they ever made.
The two have been in the screen-printing business for more than 20 years and promptly opened Screens and Threads in De Soto.
“We have been in this building a year and a half,” Kirk said. “We were in a much smaller space up off Rock Road the first six to seven years.”
When they discussed tearing down the old welding building on the Main Street property, City Manager Todd Melkus suggested they keep the concrete pad because it is in a flood plain and there are strict building regulations. So, the Corses purchased a trailer that looks like a food truck and put it on top of the concrete pad.
“It’s a mobile trailer that we are really not going to move,” Kirk said. “Like any mobile truck, our long-term goal is to have a brick-and-mortar restaurant and be able to take this trailer to different events.
“That’s what we would love to do. But for right now our aspirations are just to feed our local friends and family, our local residents – offer something new to De Soto, get through the summer and go from there.”
FatDogs is a seasonal business and will be open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend and then until the first hard freeze, Kirk said.
Seating, which is covered by a canopy, is available.
Hours are not set in stone at this point, but Kirk said the eatery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. (ish) Tuesday through Saturday.
The Corses may decide to open on Sundays.
The community support has been strong, they said.
“We love our little town,” he said.
Kirk said he and his wife had two goals when they opened FatDogs. They wanted to open a non-chain restaurant and they wanted to offer affordable food.
“Good food at a good price,” he said. “Everything is expensive now. Everything. The cost of living, gas, and, of course, food.”
He said the establishment serves quality food that fills customers’ bellies.
Kirk said he and five employees work at the restaurant, and Mandy runs the Screens and Threads store and works behind the scenes for FatDogs. Most of the employees are high school students or recent graduates.
