No 'roach coach,' Gibbins' hot dog stand aims to please

By Kathleen Grohman

You may have noticed a bright orange-and-yellow-striped addition to the Santa Clara milieu near the Safeway parking lot. For the past two weeks, Howard Gibbins has been on a quest to bring quality hot dogs to Santa Clara County.

"I'm the guy who's blazing the trail for everybody else," said Gibbins of his hot dog stand, part of his Cruising Cafés line.

Gibbins, whose work garb includes a red polo with the Cruising Cafés logo and a patriotic bandana with a picture of a bald eagle, does not yet have a name for this particular stand, but he hopes to come up with one eventually. "A few ideas bounce off my head, but nothing really sticks," he said.

Gibbins had to overcome many hurdles in the process of obtaining a permit, including Santa Clara County's stipulations about the width of the sidewalks and parking access. He said acquiring a permit was particularly hard because he is the first of his kind in Santa Clara.

"You have to go through a very thorough police background check to make sure you're a good person and be fingerprinted," he said.

For the past two weeks, Gibbins has stationed himself in Santa Clara Monday through Friday, 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (except holidays and rainy days). He also sells hot dogs at the Great America train station, where he admits business is "much heavier." But Gibbins' career in vending started even before that.

"I started out as one of those white roach coaches. I'm going to revolutionize the business and make them clean and sanitary. But there's still that stigma of the dirty, filthy roach coach, so I got out of that," he said. Roach coaches, also known as vomit comets, are traveling trucks that sell food.

Gibbins loves the freedom of his job. "I'm outside. I meet people all the time. I have no boss telling me what to do and when to do it. It's just fun this way," he said.

Gibbins has enjoyed meeting some Santa Clara law students and has even acquired a student regular. "One of the guys over here at the art class, Taylor, he's a jumbo-combo dog every day," he said.

His stand sells Polish, hot link and Italian sausages, and regular or jumbo all-beef hot dogs. All of the meat comes from Stephen's Meat Products, a local favorite since 1943, according to Gibbins, whose favorite are the hot links.

Cruising Cafés also does community outreach. Gibbins sold hot dogs at an elementary school in northern Santa Clara and all proceeds went to the school.

Gibbins also remembered serving the military. "Back in '06, the California National Guard had a bunch of guys deploying to the war. So we went out there and fed a couple of hundred guys. A total kickin' meal. It was great, giving them the white-glove treatment, because these guys go out and do something that I don't want to do," he said.

Gibbins admits that business at his new location has had a slow start, but he expects it to build. "I do offer a good price and a really good product," Gibbins said. "If you'll notice, my condiment section is really big compared to most. Come over and see me; I have some good stuff!"

Later, Gibbins pointed out that he has seven different types of mustard and 11 different hot sauces.

Sophomore Kevin O'Connor enjoyed a jumbo hot dog. "It was pretty good. Excellent value: $3.50 for a jumbo hot dog," he said. "I'd definitely go back over there with my buddies to get some hot dogs, for sure."

Correction: The story's cutline incorrectly spelled the name of the hot dog artist pictured in the photo. It is Howard Gibbins.