One Tasty Wiener: Deep Ellum’s Hotdog Stand, Vintage Shop and Ice Cream Parlor

In Deep Ellum, an inconspicuous hotdog stand is housed at the entrance of 3408 Main St. And if you strolled past it, you’d never guess that hiding behind that seemingly ordinary wiener stand was a vintage shop complete with an ice cream parlor.

One Tasty Wiener is the name of this uniquely eccentric one-stop-shop, and it’s so on-brand for Deep Ellum.

We dropped in on a Saturday afternoon (they’re open only on weekends, by the way). It was quiet – one employee was sitting behind the hotdog stand as another sweltering Texas summer day was in full swing. With plans of scoring a hotdog on the way out, we nodded at the employee and ducked into the A/C-cooled, comfy confines of the vintage shop to give it a look. Ah, freon. How we love you so. Again, once inside, it was quiet. We were the only customers there, and all we could hear (faintly) was another employee in the back by the ice cream counter.

The shop is fun to browse. You’ll find items like vintage chairs, paintings, statues, various antiques (e.g., old clocks), bicycles, life-sized sharks hanging from the ceiling and even stacks of old Playboy magazines (we leafed through a few but only to read the articles). Almost everything here is for sale. There’s also a blacklight room where you can write on the walls and read all the, ahem, interesting messages and drawings customers have left behind. The room is trippy, even stone-cold sober in the middle of the day.

When we heard the ice cream parlor employee emerge, that was our cue to quit playing in the blacklight room. Between the ice cream counter and the hotdog stand, you can find fresh fruit, aguas frescas (fruit-flavored waters), milkshakes (like a Biscoff cookie butter milkshake, which, unfortunately, they were out of), cheesecakes, Frito pies, elote, nachos, “pizza-dillas” (a pizza-quesadilla creation) and, amazingly, hotdogs and ice cream.

We grabbed some nachos, which were movie theater-style, drenched liberally with cheese and jalapenos ($6.50). And even though I wanted the pizza-dilla, I felt like I had to get the hotdog (the place is called One Tasty Wiener, after all). The classic hotdog ($6), which comes on a standard bun, was solid. No complaints. And for dessert, we went with a single scoop of Mexican vanilla ice cream, which was excellent.

There are plenty of interesting bites and refreshing drinks to get here (we’re still kicking ourselves for not getting one of those aguas frescas, which would be perfect for summer), and the vintage shop alone is worth the visit. And don’t forget to stop by the blacklight room to sign your name on the wall.

One Tasty Weiner, 3408 Main St. Friday, noon – 9 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.; Sunday, noon – 6 p.m.