After three years of serving custom hot dogs to the late night crowd, Alpha Dogs closed down their previous location on Winchester Street with future plans to create a food truck that will travel throughout campus as well as other places.
Alpha Dog’s owner, Ali Taylor, stated that the idea for the relocation from storefront to food truck came
Photo Illustration by George Amaru/ Alpha Dog logo courtsey of Alpha Dog Facebook
about after it had become clear that they were never going to grow past the late night crowd. “It is taking time to get the food truck plans up and running. We want to do it justice right out of the gate. When you see the big yellow food truck roll through town you know it’s time to decide F-Bomb or the Bizzness,” Taylor stated.
Taylor added that Alpha Dogs also plans on becoming mobile with the hopes to target a larger crowd. “Alpha Dogs has always had the plan in place to be mobile. Now it’s time to put that in motion,” Taylor said. She continued, “With having a food truck instead of just a store-front, Alpha Dogs can expand into functions and events, as well as target a bigger late night crowd,” Taylor stated.
In terms of student’s reactions to the news of the relocation, junior Paul Bourque said that he was not happy when he first heard about the move.
“At first I was mad because I thought that they closed for good. However, now that I heard that they have a food truck I think it is a better idea because people will be more likely to get Alpha Dogs if they are all around campus,” Bourque said.
Senior Christy McGraw also weighed in on her initial reaction to the relocation.
“I was disappointed because Alpha dogs was a huge late night hit for Keene’s college students. It’s sad that the incoming freshmen and transfer students currently have not experienced Alpha dogs. I know a lot of returning students were looking forward to stopping by when they moved back into Keene,” McGraw stated.
She continued, “Personally I think their business was fine just how it was before. It was always packed whenever I went there, which is a great thing for their business.” Prior to their relocation, Bourque said that he would visit Alpha Dogs at least once a week.
“I would go to Alpha Dogs all the time, usually late night when I was coming back from a party,” Bourque said. Bourque added that he would choose to go to Alpha Dogs rather than other late night food establishments because of the great customer service, good prices and quality of food.
With the future plan of relocating to an Alpha Dog’s food truck, McGraw stated that her original impression was that it was a bad idea because she questioned how students would know where to find it.
“Honestly I think it could go either way for the food truck. If they find a successful way to get the word out to students where the truck will be and [if] it’s convenient then I think they will do fine. On the other hand, if it’s not close to campus or easily accessible, then I’m sure many students will not make the effort to walk around and find it late at night,” McGraw said.
McGraw added that despite her original impression of the food truck, she felt that with knowing Alpha Dogs’ reputation she’s sure that it’ll be successful.
“If the truck is easily accessible and convenient to campus and the majority of the college’s population then students will still go find it.” McGraw said.
Brogan Wessell can be contacted at bwessell@kscequinox.com
