Steamed Fans : Vendor Brings Back Grilled Dodger Dogs After Protests

So the grills are making a comeback, huh? And you’ve already brought back peanuts in the traditional double bag? You folks at the Marriott Corp. have made a lot of changes at Dodger Stadium, and who knows, maybe someday you’ll get it right.

You’ve been doing a lot of apologizing too. You’re sorry about the Dodger Dogs, you’re sorry about the long lines. When people wrote letters of complaint, you said we’re sorry, please forgive us, here’s five Dodger Dollars on us. Even so, some fans still say you’re sorry, period. It’s a tough crowd. You say you’ve learned your lesson. The hard way. Now you understand that you don’t mess with Dodger Dogs and get away with it. You don’t tell Roger the Peanut Man how to deliver his wares. Not in this town you don’t.

“We’re in the business of providing what people want,” said Rick Sneed, the Marriott vice president in charge of apologies. “If they want their dogs grilled, then we’ll find a way to grill them.”

“We know that if you don’t have satisfied customers,” added one corporate trouble-shooter, “you won’t have customers.”

Don’t forget it, pal.

But really. What were you rookies thinking? That we Angelenos were just a bunch of laid-back folks who would eat anything? Maybe you figured when the O’Malleys awarded you the big food contract, you could force feed 3 million fans steamed Dodger Dogs. Is that what you thought?

Sure, you’d done all your surveys. You thought you knew what Dodgers fans wanted: hot dogs and peanuts and Cracker Jack, of course, but also pizza, tacos, burritos, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches. So you spend $10 million to renovate the concession stands, and when the Freeway Series came, you showed off such brand name outlets as Pizza Hut, Carl’s Jr., Taco Bell, TCBY Yogurt and Carnation ice cream.

And some fans were wondering, what is this--a ballpark or a mini-mall? And they had plenty of time to wonder, waiting in lines that lasted as long as three innings. Only half of the concession stands were finished. And the TV monitors showing the game weren’t working either.

“Carl’s Jr.?” scoffed Willie Alfaro, a stickler for tradition. “I’ve got one by my house. I want pizza, I can go to Pizza Hut. I wish it was the way it used to be. Really.”

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, there was the Dodger Dog crisis. They looked the same, sort of, so long they stuck out each end of the bun. But the color was wrong. So was the taste.

“They were all steamed,” recalled David Mount, a season ticket-holder for nine years. “And I was steamed!”

The complaints flooded into the Dodgers, Marriott and The Times. “Field of Dreams” fan Allen Arata of Hawthorne put it this way: “If you grill them, I will come.”

Very quickly, Marriott had had an earful. Sneed fired off a letter to The Times that, essentially, said: Yes, we will grill them! Yes, Roger and his cohorts are throwing peanuts! And yes, they’re in the double bag!

What Sneed didn’t put in the letter is that Marriott has been victimized by a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions. Even though the Marriott employee handbook forbade the throwing of food, Dodger Stadium peanut vendors are excepted. As for trading the double bag of peanuts for the single bag--both for $1--people were wrong in assuming the price had doubled. The single bag held 2 1/2 ounces, the double held three.

As for grilled Dodger Dogs, Sneed pointed out that they are now available at two locations on the reserved level. He promised that Marriott would provide grilled dogs at more locations as soon as possible.

An investigation Monday night confirmed strong demand at the two Dodger Dog outposts. Grilled wieners were being sold alongside Jody Maroni’s fancy sausages--another new item at the stadium--and these stands boasted the longest lines of them all. People trekked from the field level via escalator, elevator and stairs just to get some grilled dogs.

Although it wasn’t commonly known, Jordan Monkarsh, proprietor of Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom in Venice, had been grilling dogs along with his Polish, Chicken Italians and Louisiana hot link sausages since opening day of the regular season.

The Freeway Series demonstrated the importance of grilled Dodger Dogs. “People are really devoted to the Dodger Dog. I’ve never seen such a devoted crowd,” Monkarsh said. “I was surprised how much they wanted them grilled. I never expected this.”

But then, neither did you folks at Marriott. Your survey showed that people wanted variety. The problem, you say, is that Dodger Stadium lacked sufficient ventilation, and if you wanted to serve hamburgers and other new items, the trade-off would be the grilled dogs.

To fully understand the utter specialness of the Dodger Dog, a Times reporter and photographer went inside the kitchen and watched 19-year-old Sal Ocampo tend to dozens of long frankfurters on the grill. The highlight came when Ocampo used metal tongs to lift a wiener and gently nestle it in a bun. “That’s the process right there,” Ocampo said proudly.

Outside, many fans said it was worth the wait.

“You can’t go to a Dodger game and not get a Dodger Dog,” said Naomi Shima of West L.A.

Sheri Mount took a bite. “Perfect,” she proclaimed. “It’s the Zeitgeist of the place--grilled hot dogs.”

Zeitgeist?

“Hey,” she added. “We’re educated people.”

And ever so eager to please, you Marriott folks say you’ll provide grilled dogs in as many locations as possible. Ironic, isn’t it, that you’re now trying to persuade the hamburger specialist to provide grilled Dodger Dogs as well.

“We don’t know if that will be three weeks from now or three months from now or whenever,” Sneed added. “But we recognize that is a major issue with fans and we are in the business of providing them what they want and we will find some way to do it.”

By the way, know where we can get some Cool-a-Coos? You know . . . those sweet frozen things with vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two oatmeal cookies and then dipped in milk chocolate?

Nineteen-year-old Donta Abron, a vendor at the new ice cream stand, said Carnation doesn’t do Cool-a-Coos.

What?