The Easy Vegan Launches Other Dog at Town Hall Collaborative

Last summer, the Easy Vegan was awarded $50,000 after winning the sixteenth season of The Great Food Truck Race — but co-founders Alexi Mandolini and Taylor Herbert took home more than just prize money. Spending two months in Los Angeles filming the show sparked the idea for Other Dog, a sister concept that specializes in plant-based hot dogs and Italian ice.

It's set to debut on the patio at Town Hall Collaborative (525 Santa Fe Drive) on Saturday, April 6, and the team is throwing a launch party with boozy and N/A beverages, a balloon animal artist, raffles every hour for anyone who buys a hot dog, giveaways and more from noon to 4 p.m. After that, it will be open from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

“L.A. has one of the most impressive vegan food scenes in the country, and we were inspired by a lot of the pop-up kitchen concepts there,” explains Herbert. “The Easy Vegan does a little bit of everything, and we noticed that many businesses in Los Angeles [are] doing one thing and doing it really well. We love hot dogs, so we wanted to take that and do something a little more dialed in.”

During a soft launch in December, Other Dog served a loaded potato dog with sriracha aioli and garlicky sour cream, along with two regionally inspired dogs. The Carolina dog, topped with red chili, creamy slaw and chopped onion, is a nod to Herbert’s home state of North Carolina, while the classic Chicago dog, which will be a staple on Other Dog's menu, honored Mandolini’s background.
Italian ice also aligns with Mandolini’s upbringing in the Chicago area. Her dad and his brothers’ former produce company sold citrus to the famed Mario's Italian Lemonade stand, which has served Italian ice in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood since 1954. The Italian ice at Other Dog will highlight local fruits, but classic flavors like lemon will always appear on the menu.

“We're so excited to think [of fun flavors] with our team and get inspired by different food we eat around town and while traveling,” says Mandolini.

“We want to continue in the vein of the Easy Vegan — having fun and not taking ourselves too seriously,” adds Herbert.

Other Dog is outsourcing its plant-based hot dogs, but all toppings will be made in-house. It may even experiment with making its own buns, while also aiming to create a scalable model. “Other Dog is something that we can visualize being able to grow and operate in many places simultaneously, in addition to the fixed cart location,” Herbert says. “It’s a fun, low-overhead concept. We call it our side quest.”
Opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant is still a primary pursuit for Mandolini and Herbert. They’re actively looking for a space and have set aside their Food Network winnings for when the right location presents itself. “It's a big financial risk to go into a brick-and-mortar space, so it's really important for us to build out these low-overhead mobile food concepts to support our goals in a restaurant space, which include taking really good care of a team and creating positions that are careers,” Herbert notes.

As for the Easy Vegan, business has been booming since its Great Food Truck Race win. “We definitely weren't prepared for how busy we would be. I don't think we quite realized how big of a fan base the show has," Herbert says. "It's been really great, because a lot of these [new customers] aren't vegan or vegetarian, and it always means so much to us when people are open-minded about our food."

“It blows our mind that people were coming from so far to see us," Mandolini concludes. "We are just so full of gratitude for all of the support.”

For more information, follow @otherdogdenver on Instagram.