Hot Dog Factory’s Aaron Anderson is Persevering in the Midst of COVID chaos

PHILADELPHIA—The franchise owner of four The Original Hot Dog Factory restaurants, Aaron Anderson, is moving onto bigger and better things. As of January, Anderson has partnered up with Chef Reuben Harley to launch 3 Big Rube’s Kitchen ghost restaurants across Philadelphia. These “ghost kitchens” are located in Center City, University City, and Subaru Park. Customers will be able to order food online and through delivery services, such as UberEats, Postmates, and Doordash.
Aaron Anderson was born and raised in the inner cities within Philadelphia. He started off working at a record company. The record company was downsizing, which gave Anderson the opportunity to leave at a perfect time. While working at the record company, Anderson was able to save up enough money to be able to start his own printing company called “Union Printing” in 2009. This business was in place for 13 years, and helped him build up enough revenue to start up “The Original Hot Dog Factory” without any loans to help out. Anderson’s success with Union Printing provided not only financial stability, but also the experience needed to open his first restaurant franchise in March 2020. Having already owned a few Rita’s Water Ice’s around town, his ownership experience led to immediate success within The Original Hot Dog Factory organization. Once the pandemic hit, it was an entirely new challenge for Anderson to face. The Original Hot Dog Factory kitchen relied heavily on foot traffic, pre-pandemic. Since then, they’ve had to change the way they served customers. They started heavy marketing with different delivery platforms.
Thanks to the pandemic, Anderson was able to partner with Chef Reuben Harley and make “Big Rube’s” another pivotal move for himself. The Philadelphia entrepreneur found creative ways to not only stay open, but also to grow, adding to his number of franchises by adapting to current trends; this was also to Anderson’s advantage. Ghost Kitchens around the city have already started to become a thing. When I first heard Anderson mention it, I was confused until I found out that ghost kitchens are kitchens that are solely used for delivery and takeout. Ghost kitchens became bigger in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, making restaurants worldwide takeout and delivery only, to prevent the spread of COVID-19. His plans moving forward are to expand bigger and quotes that: “I’m in love with the hustle. When you’re in love with something, you don’t and can’t give up. Hopefully my experience impacts others.”
Anderson credits some of his success during the pandemic to catering to first responders and essential workers, and making sure all of his employees and take-out customers are in a safe environment to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with social distancing, face masks and the installation of self-service kiosks. He’s doing his part to keep the community safe while still expanding his business, in and outside of Philadelphia.