Lebanon
“Five-fifty please,” said the adjacent hot dog cart’s proprietress. There was a touch of mock snippiness in her voice as she received $6 from her customer. “Do you want your 50 cents back?”
Roberts smiled and winked.
“Yep,” he said. “I don’t tip.”
And why should he? Steve Roberts is the father and chief investor of the hot dog stand’s operator, former three-sport Lebanon High athlete Samantha Roberts, now a rising junior at the University of New Hampshire. Steve Roberts, who runs a Mechanic Street automotive repair shop bearing his family’s name, bought the three-wheeled cart from a customer two years ago as a way to give the three Roberts kids an unconventional summer job.
Last summer, Samantha and her younger sister, Lexie, a rising Lebanon High senior, ran the cart together. This time around, Samantha’s mostly on her own. Joe, the girls’ 14-year old brother and a Cardigan Mountain School student, might inherit the business next year when his oldest sibling plans to tackle an internship through school.
For now, she operates the cart, distinctive for its red-and-yellow umbrella, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. six days a week and in spaces adjacent to the park that are set aside for vendors.
“When I tell people I run a hot dog cart, their first reaction is to laugh,” Samantha Roberts said. “But I’m running my own business, and I’m outside for about 25 hours a week. I’m making as much or more money than others my age who are working 40 and are inside all day.”
Roberts alternates slow periods, when she works on her tan and reads books, with rushes like the one that occurred around 1:30 p.m. on Monday. Three drivers pulled over to grab lunch, including Jim Vanier, director of the nearby Carter Community Building. He’s a longtime friend of Roberts’ jovial grandfather, Jim, who was lounging under the tent with his West Highland terrier, Jasper.
“I saw your brother yesterday,” Jim Roberts said. “It must be ‘Vanier Week.’ ”
“You sitting there trying to drive away business?” came the reply from Vanier, who ordered his hot dogs with mustard only, declining ketchup, onions, relish, chili or cheese.
“My son’s like you,” Jim Roberts shot back. “Eats everything plain. No mayo, no ketchup, nothing. God almighty, you might as well eat grass!”
Samantha Roberts, who’s often blessed with her grandfather’s company at the cart, dished out dogs to a pair of businesswomen who then retreated to a shady bench. A realtor busily texting on her smartphone grabbed lunch between thumb taps, and Lebanon police officer Eric Hunter stopped by with his 14-week old German shepherd, Siren, who playfully nuzzled a skeptical Jasper under the table.
The placid scene was briefly interrupted by a car that pulled a sudden U-turn in front of the cart and began driving around the park the wrong way. Its occupants were oblivious to shouts and hollers from those frantically wielding wieners.
“You wouldn’t believe how many times that happens,” Samantha Roberts said as the out-of-town motorists realized their mistake and drove back past, this time in the correct direction and waving their thanks. “I’d bet it’s happened 10 or 12 times already this summer.”
Amazingly, Roberts said, she’s seen no fender-benders during her time hawking frankfurters. She has, however, been the recipient of an arranged-marriage proposal. It was from an older gentleman who wanted to set her up with his son.
Generally, however, her work interactions are more mundane.
“I’ve haven’t had any nasty customers,” Roberts said. “People have been super nice.”
Eric Nordstrom, a contractor from Texas in town to work at a local business, stopped by one afternoon last month with his wife, Lucy, and their children, Loki and Loui. They enjoyed their lunch and the fact that a young person was serving it up. Lone hot dogs cost $2.50, chips and drinks are $1 each and pickled eggs will run you 50 cents.
“I think it shows initiative and entrepreneurial spirit,” Eric Nordstrom said. “You don’t learn everything by getting a college degree.”
That’s partially why Steve Roberts bought the cart. As someone who deals face-to-face with the public, he wants his children to learn how to handle different people and various interactions early in life.
“It gives them a foundation in business,” he said. “They’re responsible for the permits and fees and licenses and in dealing with the city.”
They’ve also got a mortgage payment, of sorts. Dad put up the roughly $6,000 needed for an initial investment, and the Roberts offspring pay him back on a monthly basis.
A good day consists of selling 50 or more hot dogs, and Samantha Roberts said the nice weather of late has helped sales to boom.
“This might be the best day I’ve had yet,” she said after Monday’s surge.
The cart, named SAJ Dawgs for the operators’ first initials, is essentially a chrome box roughly the size of a traditional kitchen island. It’s heated by two small propane tanks and features a bumper hitch so it can be towed around. Samantha Roberts, whose team sports activities are now limited to UNH’s women’s club hockey squad, said she also takes the cart to a weekly car show in White River Junction and plans to be at a few Whaleback Ski Area events later this summer.
What are the best parts of the job? Lexie Roberts, a field hockey and lacrosse player who’s lifeguarding at the Hartford town pool this summer, said the cart gig’s flexibility and working for yourself are plusses.
Your coworkers? Not always the case.
“You’re working with your family, and you have to go home with them at the end of the day,” she said with a laugh. “We had to put in a rule that you can’t talk about the hot dog cart during dinner.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com or 603-727-3227.