Ted’s Hot Dogs, the Buffalo, NY-based hot dog company with a location in Tempe, is getting ready to try to expand within Arizona, this time coming to Chandler.
The company made some operational changes, including the addition of Ray Barry, who joined the company 18 months ago as the first non-family member to serve as CEO. Since then, Ted’s Hot Dogs reopened its downtown site at 124 W. Chippewa Street earlier this month after months of temporary closure. Now, the company is ready to expand within Arizona, three years after putting that plan on hold, according to Buffalo Business Journal.
Previously, the company announced plans to open its second Arizona location at the Chandler Crossroads on the northwest corner of Gilbert and Germann but had to put things on hold. On top of restructuring the core operational structure of the company, Ted’s Hot Dogs was also renovating its then-34-year-old Tempe location, which took longer than expected. Ted’s also ran into problems with the Crossroads shopping center over the design of the planned new building, which was to include a drive-through. So Ted’s went looking for another site in the area, and was set to move into a space on the southeast corner of Gilbert and Germann.
It’s unclear exactly where Ted’s Hot Dogs will land, but the company already owns the land and will build the store from the ground up, with an opening possible by year-end, according to the Business Journal. The company was founded on Buffalo’s West Side in 1927 by Greek immigrant Theodore “Ted” Spiro Liaros, who operated what the company calls the earliest iteration of a food truck: a horse-drawn hot dog cart. Today, the company is owned by his granddaughter, Thecly Ortolani, and operates eight stores and a food truck in the Buffalo market.
