Novel: Food on Prospect Street

The vendor that sells food to drunk people: a professional opportunity as old as the prostitute or mercenary. The famous Papaya Dog of New York City, for instance, sells hot dogs as late as you are awake for the outrageous price of $1.50. It seems that Prospect Street now has its own late night supplier of unhealthy sustenance that has lately attracted much attention from Princeton’s partying crowds. A local entrepreneur has found a void in the food market at Princeton University, where the recession has recently forced the formerly 24 hour U-Store to shut its doors at 3AM nightly. Parking his carnival-esque trailer outside the former Campus Club, this mystery-man vendor sells his chili hot dog concoctions for about $4 apiece (inflated price due to high demand and low inhibitions) on almost every Thursday and Saturday night, remaining until the early morning hours. He must be earning a relative fortune in this brutal economic epoch because I’ve never left Prospect Street without seeing a veritable herd of Princetonians in front of the “hot dog man.” What makes that inscrutable meat in hot dogs a successful culinary venture? I suppose one might call it chicken soup for the inebriated soul. Regardless of the quality of those chili dogs, it seems that every time I pass that damn trailer on Prospect I am inevitably left thinking “Why has nobody thought of this before?” -MAG