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Five decades of Dip Dogs

By STEPHANIE PORTER-NICHOLS/Staff

MARION, VA—As the woman placed her order, Pam Hall couldn’t help but notice the bags she carried with her, the kind designed to keep food warm on long trips. The co-owner of the small drive-in eatery a few miles outside of Marion asked about the bags. The customer explained that her father was dying and wanted a last meal from the Dip Dog Stand. With Hall’s help, the man’s daughter made his wish come true.
Pam and her husband, Grant, own the Hi-Way Drive-In, the stand’s official, but rarely used, name. They can recount numerous stories that chronicle a unique food’s power to not only satisfy taste buds but to create a sense of home and community.
Much credit for the tiny eatery’s success belongs to its owners. They, however, are quick to acknowledge God, who they believe has blessed them abundantly. In a recent interview, Pam said, “We need to give the Lord credit.” In deference, she noted that they’ve given away more than a million playing-card-sized, Bible-based pamphlets and never found one dropped in their parking lot just off U.S. 11.
More than half a million Dip Dogs, red (a requirement) hot dogs dipped in batter and deep fried, are sold each year. Grant emphasizes that Dip Dogs are not corn dogs and diners back up the contention. Whatever the ingredients, Dip Dogs’ success is indisputable as the drive-in is marking its 50th anniversary. Across the decades from 1957, the Dip Dog story has been carried across continents by devoted fans.
Today, evidence tells us the story has reached as far as Africa, Scotland, Iraq and Vietnam.
Pam noted that she recently felt quite humble when a man came in to get one of the drive-in’s new bumper stickers that read “got Dip Dogs?” He explained that his son is a solider serving in Iraq and all he wanted was one of those stickers for his Humvee.
Roger Blevins, a Chilhowie native who lives in Max Meadows, can relate to how the soldier feels.
Eleven years old when he ate his first Dip Dog, Blevins well remembers when the stand opened. Noting that the drive-in was first owned by Lester Brown, Blevins said, “No trip was complete without a stop by Brown’s for a Dip Dog.” In 1968, he introduced his future wife, Susan, a Wythe County native, to the Dip Dog.
A short time later, he left Smyth County to serve in Vietnam. He remembers long days fighting in the field with only C-Rations (combat rations) to eat. “Twenty-four hours a day, out in the sun and weather, I’d get hungry a lot,” he noted. During those times, he said, “I missed the Dip Dog greatly.” He laughed recalling how when he talked about it, people would look at him and say “What’s a Dip Dog?”
“As soon as I got home, I went and got Dip Dogs.”
With a growing family, he introduced his daughter and son to the drive-in. During his time at Marion College, he also initiated fellow students from all over the East Coast to the Smyth County institution. “So we got the word out about the Dip Dog Stand,” he said. And, he believes, “99 percent want to go back.”
“It’s one of the most recognizable things about Smyth County,” Blevins said. He added, “It’s part of small-town America.”
On trips to Chilhowie to visit family, he still stops for a meal at the eatery, including as recently as two weeks ago.
“I hope they’re around another 50 years. I may not be around to see it, but I hope they make it,” Blevins concluded.
So does Grant, who, looking at his son, Justin, and daughter, Crystal, remarked that he’d like to think his descendants will celebrate the drive-in’s 100th anniversary.
The stand has been in his family since 1966, when he was in the fourth grade.
His dad was a carpenter, who, according to Grant, was working in Lester Brown’s kitchen one day. The two men talked and by day’s end had swapped a cabin at the lake and the eatery. “Dad left a carpenter and came home a restaurant owner.”
His parents, Grant Sr. and Olivine, and all their children worked at the drive-in. As a high school student, Pam joined the operation when she was 15.
In 1979, Grant Sr. wanted to retire and asked Grant and Pam, who hadn’t been married long, if they’d like to take over. Grant Jr. said he was hesitant, but his father coached him. Grant recalls him saying, “Why don’t you just stay here? It’s an opportunity.”
Grant and Pam’s two children and now their nephew Chris Elswick have joined the operation.
They all know that the food service business is a challenge. When asked what the drive-in represented to him, Justin’s response came in one word, “Work.”
Crystal noted that they’re certainly less likely to complain when they encounter problems at another restaurant.
A teacher in Washington County, Crystal remembers how fun it was to be in school and have her class rewarded with Dip Dogs so now she treats her fifth-graders.
The Halls continue a tradition started decades ago that rewards students who bring in their report cards with all A’s and B’s with a custard or ice cream cone.
Pam noted, “Their eyes light up.” She remembers the joy of receiving her reward when she was an elementary school student.
The Halls’ family approach to the business extends to employees. In August, Melinda Anderson will mark her 22nd anniversary with the eatery. Anderson commented, “It’s a good place to work, just like family.”
Though countless people pass through the stand’s doors, Anderson said she’s gotten used to seeing many of the same people come in regularly, some daily. If they don’t come, she said, you wonder if they’re OK.
The Halls believe that knowing their customers and caring for them is good business. Noting that the establishment survived the opening of Interstate 81 when many others didn’t, Grant said of the customers, “Without them, we’d have been gone years ago. The community has stuck with us for 50 years.”
Thanks to customer devotion and the power of word of mouth, their community is growing. To celebrate the business’ 50th anniversary, the Halls are tracking where the Dip Dog bumper stickers end up. They hope to get photos of the promotional items in all 50 states. So far, photos have come in from Africa, Iraq, Alaska, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois and Colorado. Coming soon is one from Scotland.
Though many characteristics of the drive-in haven’t changed in five decades, the stand has joined the Internet age. Web users can track the bumper stickers and learn more about the operation and its anniversary celebrations at http://www.dipdogs.net.
While the unique aspects of the stand, like the Dip Dog, are part of its success and won’t change, the Halls acknowledge that they experiment with the menu and have added new items and work to make the eatery more user friendly. The operation’s intercom is not only used to call out order numbers but to play music. A picnic table will soon be added. “It’s important for children to make memories,” said Pam, with Grant adding that many of their customers started coming as kids and now bring their children.
On the day of their interview, 74-year-old Robert Stevenson came by the stand and ordered six Dip Dogs and three drinks – a meal for himself, his 70-year-old wife, Margaret, and their great-granddaughter.
Eating in their black SUV in the stand’s parking lot, Robert, a Saltville resident, said he was in Marion on another matter, but added, “I can’t pass by without stopping.” He’s been stopping for 40 years. He only missed 10, he said, because he moved to Lynchburg for a time.
Apparently, the Dip Dog’s appeal reaches across age and an assortment of other backgrounds. Recent visitors have included the band Aerosmith, 48 bikers who came by on a Sunday night, a trucker who vowed to share word of the Dip Dog across the trucking community, and a limousine filled with 15 people coming from the race in Bristol.
Pam may have described the culmination of 50 years of the Dip Dog Stand best when she said, “There are so many exciting tales to tell.”

Stephanie Porter-Nichols writes for the Smyth County News & Messenger and may be reached at (276) 783-5121 or .