Today is the last day to get a Top Dog on Center Street. The southside Top Dog survives.

Too nouveau

When you look at how few people it takes to staff Top Dog I always thought it must be a profitable business. I remember when there was just one person behind the counter taking the orders, cooking the sausages and most impressively remembering everyones orders, coming back to them and tallying up their bill in his head.....

And then there was one.....

Edit: Thanks for the correction below, Cal83dls79, you are right about the second one on Lakeshore, it slipped my mind. But I guess we're down to one around campus now.

75bear said:

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And then there was one.....

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still one on lakeshore and Durant …when pressed for time I hit lakeshore…same dogs and fixings without panic

I really miss the one on Northside. Lots of lunches when I was a student in the '70s, and stops with the kids when we would come down for a football game in the 90's-2000's. I know it's been gone for years, but the reflex to buy one still kicks in when we park on Northside and walk down Euclid towards the stadium.

The decline of Top Dog has really been felt since the 2019 death of founder Frederick von Taupdawgson.

First Augie's
Now Top Dog?

And yet somehow oasis and Saul's remain

Maybe rebrand to Raw Dog and just stop giving a f and they will make money.
Also pubes. Pubes in the bun warmer = huge fan fare money maker on the north end.

HearstMining said:

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I really miss the one on Northside. Lots of lunches when I was a student in the '70s, and stops with the kids when we would come down for a football game in the 90's-2000's. I know it's been gone for years, but the reflex to buy one still kicks in when we park on Northside and walk down Euclid towards the stadium.

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la Val's, the Cheshire Cat and cafe Depresso aren't there as well. And the bookstore with the weird clerk

cal83dls79 said:

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HearstMining said:

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I really miss the one on Northside. Lots of lunches when I was a student in the '70s, and stops with the kids when we would come down for a football game in the 90's-2000's. I know it's been gone for years, but the reflex to buy one still kicks in when we park on Northside and walk down Euclid towards the stadium.

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la Val's, the Cheshire Cat and cafe Depresso aren't there as well. And the bookstore with the weird clerk

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La Val's closed?!? I was just there in November...

The Top Dog grill man I will always remember was a guy named Dave from the early to mid 1970's on Durant. Long light colored hair, sometimes wore a headband, thick Fu Man Chu and he was a Vietnam vet. He had to be 10 years older than me. He ended up marrying some sexy receptionist at a coffee shop I worked at in Walnut Creek when I was at Cal. She frequently told me how often her and Dave did the deed. I found it quite frustrating. I had a new respect for Dave after that.

Top Dog FRANKFURTER
All beef - kosher style
GARLIC FRANKFURTER
3/4 beef, 1/4 pork, fresh garlic
BOCKWURST
1/2 pork, 1/2 veal, milk, eggs
KIELBASA (POLISH)
2/3 pork, 1/3 beef - hearty
CALABRESE (ITALIAN)
Pork, paprika, chili, fennel semi-hot
HOT LINK (LOUSIANA STYLE)
Beef and four kinds of pepper h-h-hottt
BRATWURST (GERMAN)
Pork, marjoram genuine old world taste
LEMON CHICKEN
Chicken, fresh lemon & garlic low salt, low fat, no preservatives
SMOKED CHICKEN APPLE
Chicken, juicy bits of apple low salt
MANGO with JALAPENO
Chicken, mango, jalapeño pepper
THE WIENIE (VEGGIE)
Wheat Protein, Bell Peppers, Fennel, Eggplant and Fresh Garlic. No preservatives

bear2034 said:

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Top Dog FRANKFURTER
All beef - kosher style
GARLIC FRANKFURTER
3/4 beef, 1/4 pork, fresh garlic
BOCKWURST
1/2 pork, 1/2 veal, milk, eggs
KIELBASA (POLISH)
2/3 pork, 1/3 beef - hearty
CALABRESE (ITALIAN)
Pork, paprika, chili, fennel semi-hot
HOT LINK (LOUSIANA STYLE)
Beef and four kinds of pepper h-h-hottt
BRATWURST (GERMAN)
Pork, marjoram genuine old world taste
LEMON CHICKEN
Chicken, fresh lemon & garlic low salt, low fat, no preservatives
SMOKED CHICKEN APPLE
Chicken, juicy bits of apple low salt
MANGO with JALAPENO
Chicken, mango, jalapeño pepper
THE WIENIE (VEGGIE)
Wheat Protein, Bell Peppers, Fennel, Eggplant and Fresh Garlic. No preservatives

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anyone remember the Bird Dog? I also thought that was a good option

GoCal80 said:

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Today is the last day to get a Top Dog on Center Street. The southside Top Dog survives.

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Top Dog is never OT

PB, 5 Germans, Spring Quarter, 1975.

NVBear78 said:

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When you look at how few people it takes to staff Top Dog I always thought it must be a profitable business. I remember when there was just one person behind the counter taking the orders, cooking the sausages and most impressively remembering everyones orders, coming back to them and tallying up their bill in his head.....

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AI before it had a name

They closed at 5 pm. How can you survive financially with those hours? Missed opportunities on basketball game nights on a high foot traffic area.

Big C said:

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cal83dls79 said:

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HearstMining said:

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I really miss the one on Northside. Lots of lunches when I was a student in the '70s, and stops with the kids when we would come down for a football game in the 90's-2000's. I know it's been gone for years, but the reflex to buy one still kicks in when we park on Northside and walk down Euclid towards the stadium.

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la Val's, the Cheshire Cat and cafe Depresso aren't there as well. And the bookstore with the weird clerk

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La Val's closed?!? I was just there in November...

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La Val's website is still active. Yelp reviews as recently as 4/24. So I think it's probably still alive and kicking. Apparently there is no longer a La Val's on southside, but that may have gone years ago - I don't know.
Cheshire Cat was where I first tasted Anchor Steam beer - a bunch of us from Stebbins Hall co-op used to go down on Thursday nights - spring 1976. Good times!

Big C said:

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La Val's closed?!? I was just there in November...

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I think @cal83dls79 was referring to the old La Val's on Durant, in that same complex that used to have a Tower Records. I think the southside La Val's close in the late-90's/early-00's. Pretty sure northside La Val's is going strong, as their website is active and accepting orders.

I don't recall a "Cheshire Cat" in Berkeley, however. And I'm old having graduated in the early nineties.

For those interested...La Val's history link. Southside La Val's closed in 2005.

Also, Dan Fogerty bought the restaurant in '76 -- Fogerty is a pretty unique name, could it be?

https://lavals.com/about-us/

NVBear78 said:

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When you look at how few people it takes to staff Top Dog I always thought it must be a profitable business. I remember when there was just one person behind the counter taking the orders, cooking the sausages and most impressively remembering everyones orders, coming back to them and tallying up their bill in his head.....

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Crap! It was so convenient going to and coming back from campus on BART. However, it already had ridiculously limited hours that seemed to never get reversed from COVID. Weren't they closed by 5pm each day? I suppose the rent was unsustainable. It didn't have the lines that Top Dog Southside had to its proximity to the dorms, frats, and of course pre and post games crowds for football. Another sad day for food businesses. Now I worry that Bongo Burger on Center will close too. It too has a short window of open hours.

My buddies and I used to drink pitchers of beer with our pizza at LaVal's on Euclid (standard order for two: 1 large pizza; 3 pitchers) when we were seniors at O'Dowd (1971-72). Were they that loose or did we look that dissipated at 17 from partying? Pizza Haven down that alleyway on Bancroft same thing.

BearBoarBlarney said:

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Big C said:

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La Val's closed?!? I was just there in November...

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I think @cal83dls79 was referring to the old La Val's on Durant, in that same complex that used to have a Tower Records. I think the southside La Val's close in the late-90's/early-00's. Pretty sure northside La Val's is going strong, as their website is active and accepting orders.

I don't recall a "Cheshire Cat" in Berkeley, however. And I'm old having graduated in the early nineties.

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What I'd give to be as "old" as you (I got maybe a dozen years on you)...

Cheshire Cat was disgusting, maybe in a good way, depending on your POV... it was right near N, side LaVal's, maybe in the same alcove. On Thursday's, they had 99 cent pitchers of PBR and the pitchers were pretty big, at that. I don't know anyone that ever went there except Thursdays. The men's room was dark... and you were glad it was, the floor was all sticky. You had to decide if washing your hands after you peed would improve your hygiene situation, or make it worse. Probably the latter, as the sink was only semi-functional and there were no paper towels.

No surprise that Cheshire Cat didn't last until the '90s.

Hello. Is there any way I can contact the owners of Top Dog? If it's true that they are shutting down the Durant location, my business partners and I would like to buy the property, tear it down and use it to expand La Burrita into a true dining destination. We would also build housing above it.

okaydo said:

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Hello. Is there any way I can contact the owners of Top Dog? If it's true that they are shutting down the Durant location, my business partners and I would like to buy the property, tear it down and use it to expand La Burrita into a true dining destination. We would also build housing above it.

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Who said they are shutting down the Durant location, unless you tryna troll us like usual.

Big C said:

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BearBoarBlarney said:

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Big C said:

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La Val's closed?!? I was just there in November...

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I think @cal83dls79 was referring to the old La Val's on Durant, in that same complex that used to have a Tower Records. I think the southside La Val's close in the late-90's/early-00's. Pretty sure northside La Val's is going strong, as their website is active and accepting orders.

I don't recall a "Cheshire Cat" in Berkeley, however. And I'm old having graduated in the early nineties.

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What I'd give to be as "old" as you (I got maybe a dozen years on you)...

Cheshire Cat was disgusting, maybe in a good way, depending on your POV... it was right near N, side LaVal's, maybe in the same alcove. On Thursday's, they had 99 cent pitchers of PBR and the pitchers were pretty big, at that. I don't know anyone that ever went there except Thursdays. The men's room was dark... and you were glad it was, the floor was all sticky. You had to decide if washing your hands after you peed would improve your hygiene situation, or make it worse. Probably the latter, as the sink was only semi-functional and there were no paper towels.

No surprise that Cheshire Cat didn't last until the '90s.

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I literally saw dudes pissing in that sink when there was a line up at the urinals

okaydo said:

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Hello. Is there any way I can contact the owners of Top Dog? If it's true that they are shutting down the Durant location, my business partners and I would like to buy the property, tear it down and use it to expand La Burrita into a true dining destination. We would also build housing above it.

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From The Oaklandside:

Top Dog Center Street

Don't worry folks, the original Top Dog on Durant Street in Berkeley (since 1966!) remains open and ready for your quality sausage or frankfurter order, and Top Dog Lakeshore in Oakland isn't going anywhere. But the Top Dog location on downtown Berkeley's Center Street will close following service on May 2 after 20 years. As many Berkeley residents are probably well aware, the area at the corner of Center and Oxford streets is in transition, and many restaurants and retail outlets have been closing and/or relocating one by one in anticipation of big changes. The Center Street Top Dog is among those closures, though it might not be foreveraccording to a representative, Top Dog might reacquire its downtown spot in the future once construction settles. But for now … Top Dog was at 2160 Center St. in Berkeley.

Man, if Top Dog Lakeshore had been open in the early 1970s, I probably would have weighed 250-300 pounds when I got to Cal. The Calabreses were life itself.

okaydo said:

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Hello. Is there any way I can contact the owners of Top Dog? If it's true that they are shutting down the Durant location, my business partners and I would like to buy the property, tear it down and use it to expand La Burrita into a true dining destination. We would also build housing above it.

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Tearing down Top Dog and building on that sacred ground would be like building on a Native American burial site. Bad juju for a 1000 years. The ghosts of Cal grads that died from clogged arteries that were set in motion by TD when they were undergrads would haunt the building.

Stop going when they changed the buns. Barely big enough to fit the reduced sized dogs. Went to Costco today and got the $1.99 dog and pepsi special, far better,although I hate to admit it

NVBear78 said:

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When you look at how few people it takes to staff Top Dog I always thought it must be a profitable business. I remember when there was just one person behind the counter taking the orders, cooking the sausages and most impressively remembering everyones orders, coming back to them and tallying up their bill in his head.....

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Which is why closing at 5:00 pm does not make sense. The rent is already paid for. All you are paying for is incremental labor to stay open a few hours longer to catch the dinner/basketball crowd.

The Calabrese has moved up the charts on my TD list. I may have to change my handle to OneTopOneCALabrese.

Too bad about the proposed high rise developement on Center Street. The scale of the buildings were great for that street.

bearister said:

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okaydo said:

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Hello. Is there any way I can contact the owners of Top Dog? If it's true that they are shutting down the Durant location, my business partners and I would like to buy the property, tear it down and use it to expand La Burrita into a true dining destination. We would also build housing above it.

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Tearing down Top Dog and building on that sacred ground would be like building on a Native American burial site. Bad juju for a 1000 years. The ghosts of Cal grads that died from clogged arteries that were set in motion by TD when they were undergrads would haunt the building.

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Don't worry. We'll put a plaque that will honor Top Dog's history as a restaurant that Super Bowl performer Usher once ate at.

oskidunker said:

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Stop going when they changed the buns. Barely big enough to fit the reduced sized dogs. Went to Costco today and got the $1.99 dog and pepsi special, far better,although I hate to admit it

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I thought the Costco hot dog/drink combo is $1.50. If they ever raise it to $1.99, there will be riots.