When our son invited us to come with them to Nordic Dogs food truck at Wandering Leaf Brewing we said sure, we always love trying something new and John loves food trucks! It turns out our son is a Nordic Dogs ‘groupie’… and for good reason! This isn’t just a guy who wanted a food truck, and thought hot dogs would be easy. I was so impressed when I read Chef Tom’s story.
He grew up in Norwegian Lutheran church heritage and became a culinary trained chef. But he noticed that although the Twin Cities is steeped in Scandinavian heritage its food was totally absent from the restaurant scene.
Soooo… he got the bug to bring it here and went to Scandinavia… not as a tourist, but as a chef traveling to Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Iceland absorbing the street food culture.
“On the last leg of the trip, the idea that had been forming for months finally locked in — hot dogs weren’t just a vehicle. They were the story.”
They first thought about starting something like a bistro truck, but when they got back Tom had a clear vision to bring authentic flavors in a format people could grab at a street corner. Nordic Dogs was founded in 2023 with high quality ingredients – Kramarczuk’s hot dogs and all toppings chef crafted from scratch, including Danish remoulade, lingonberry ketchup, house made slaw.
These are no ordinary hot dogs… they are amazing, I understand why our son fell in love with them… and also Chef Tom’s dual life as a heavy metal drummer, another of our son’s loves.
You will find the Nordic Dogs truck at various places throughout the metro… see their schedule here.
They were at Wandering Leaf Brewing Company when we experienced them…
…no surprise, our daughter-in-law brought a puzzle to do while we were there!
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – shensrud@homesmsp.com
