The pink flamingo float features “Summer Babe,” a hot dog topped with peppered mayo, pickled cherry tomatoes and herby salad (basil, dill and green onion). The puffin float carries the “Classic,” which has sweet pickle relish, chopped onion, ketchup and mustard. (Photo by Jordan Hanna)
Bomer Horne has a thing — he’d call it an obsession — for hot dogs. Looking at his idea list or R&D board, you might be slightly weirded out or wildly intrigued, though the lines at his Horne Dogs pop-ups prove that his creations tend to evoke the latter reaction. Exuding a flair for the absurd and a soft spot for nostalgia, the Newport News native prefers to dress his dogs with uncommon ingredients, from crushed Takis (the popular rolled corn tortilla chips) and soda-spiked slaw to green bean casserole and Thousand Island dressing.
Sporting a ripped “Xena: Warrior Princess” shirt, he says, “I’ve been throwing myself a hot dog party for my birthday for the last 20 years. Nothing too crazy, just, ‘Oh, I’m going to buy a lot of hot dogs and invite people over and have the best day of my life.’”
If you think he’s joking, think again. In 2021, the husband and father of two launched Horne Dogs, an ode to the beefy links destined for a bun. Since making his pop-up debut at Don’t Look Back, where he currently works, Horne has been gaining fans with his ridiculous Instagram memes and even zanier hot dog creations.
“I had talked about it for years before I did it, but it’ll be three years in August,” he says of Horne Dogs. In that time, he’s held events at Helen’s, Spotty Dog Ice Cream Co., Cobra Burger, Dot’s Back Inn and more. “We’ve done 21 pop-ups and — don’t quote me — 51 different hot dogs.”
Horne Dogs menus typically feature the familiar Hot Dog King (an ode to the Newport News restaurant Gus’s Hot Dog King that comes topped with beef chili, cheese sauce, mustard and chopped onion), plus an array of offerings that follow quirky themes: the Spawn Ranch (smoked tomato jam, buttermilk ranch and shredduce), the Candyman (sweet glaze, apple kraut, maple mustard and candied bacon) or the Big Mac Doggo (Thousand Island dressing, onion, pickle slices, shredduce and cheese). He occasionally serves corn dogs, ranch-seasoned fries and potato wedges, along with banana pudding and other desserts, as well as vegan and vegetarian options.
Horne’s infatuation with hot dogs goes back to his childhood. He can recall eating his first foot-long with his grandmother at the old-school Monty’s Penguin in Newport News, as well as the way his mother pronounced Das Weiner Works while driving by the now-closed Hampton hot dog institution. “It’s something I’ve loved forever,” he says.
With stints at Richmond restaurants including the now-shuttered Etta Mae’s Cafe, The Peacock’s Pantry and Mean Bird, as well as Flour Garden Bakery, 8 1/2 and Ellwood Thompson’s, he says Horne Dogs feels like the opportunity for his unhinged ideas to run free.
“This was never a moneymaking project but an ‘I just want to do something for myself’ project,” he says. “I’m just obsessed with this concept of hot dogging and Horne dogging.”
With upcoming events including a celebration for National 7-Eleven Day on July 11 in Church Hill, Horne says, “It’s fun. I can make anything a hot dog. It’s like that stoner mentality of, ‘How dumb is this?’ but you want it. There’s that craveability, which is the word I always say to myself: ‘Is it craveable?’ Everybody is doing something, but it’s not the same, and no one is ever going to do what I’m doing.”
