Jim Gardner
Managing Editor- San Francisco Business Times

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Some real estate developers collect yachts. Others dabble in winemaking, heli-skiing or competitive cycling.

Jesse Herzog sells hot dogs.

A vice president of development for Avant Housing and AGI Capital, Herzog is also the proprietor of Zog’s Dogs, a gourmet hot dog stand at 646 Market St.

Real estate development was dead in the water back in 2009 when Herzog (nicknamed Zog) was looking for a revenue-generating opportunity and stumbled across a classified advertising a hot dog stand for sale in downtown San Francisco. He had always wanted to own a hot dog stand, so he bought it.

“My family came here in 1850 — they were wholesale butchers downtown and had a corral where they kept cattle in the Dogpatch,” said Herzog. “Six generations later, I’m entitling a property in the Dogpatch and selling meat downtown. So the apple didn’t fall far from the tree.”

Zog’s sells an average of about 125 hot dogs on a decent weekday. Best sellers include the Moral Conundrum (a veggie dog wrapped in bacon), the Prop 8 Dog (two dogs in one bun), and the Bobo Dog (for the Bourgeois Bohemian).

Indeed, Herzog has turned his hot dog stand into an expression of his interest in art. He offers what is certainly the world’s only Hot Dog Stand Artistic Fellowship (deadline March 1) where artists are encouraged to make hot dog-themed art. Winners include a group who made a video about the launch of the first hot dog into outer space, a woman who painted ketchup and mustard portraits of customers (including Avant Housing executive Eric Tao, who ended up looking like Michael Jackson), and a performance piece on “love and loss in the context of hot dogs.”

“It’s been interesting to me to understand what the San Francisco consumer wants, which can be very complicated,” said Herzog. “San Franciscans have a lot of opinions, whether it’s about hot dogs or real estate entitlement.”

Jim Gardner oversees print and online news coverage of the vibrant Bay Area economy.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/02/san-francisco-real-estate-developer.html