1.5K views Nov 2009
A Chicago hot dog stand serves late-night crowds with staff who yell insults and trade insults with customers, turning rude banter into a lively attraction.
0:16 Chicago has one of these restaurants, and you know how a lot of cities have a restaurant whose big idea, whose big gimmick is the waiters are rude to the customers? 0:24 So the waiters sass, they talk back, they tease, all with a little wink like, isn't this funny? 0:30 This next story is not about a place like that. 0:34 You didn't pay for those yet. 0:36 I just gave you some. 0:37 No, you did not. It's in your hand, motherfucker. 0:40 Dude, how 0:41 Well, shut the fuck up. Pay me my money or get the fuck out. 0:44 Welcome to the Wiener Circle. 0:46 Now fuck you. 0:49 During the day, the Wiener Circle is an utterly normal hot dog stand, but on weekend nights, they're up until 5 a.m. 0:56 And at some point in the night, the bars start closing, people start streaming in, 1:02 and I don't pretend to know what kind of state they're in. So to play it safe, we are blurring out a lot of people. 1:08 Faced with this crowd, the owners stumbled on a different way to run their business. 1:12 What do you call yourselves? 1:13 The Simp and the Blimp. 1:15 How many years have you owned this place? 1:17 24 years. 1:18 Almost 24. 1:19 Fuck you, bug faggot. Swallowing a choke on you, motherfucker. 1:23 When did the screaming at the customers start? 1:27 About 15 years ago. 1:28 Like, was there one person who was the person who started it? 1:31 Um, you might say Larry started it. 1:34 Really? 1:34 He, uh, accidentally. 1:36 I take the credit for it. I take the credit for that, yeah. It was a build up towards it, yeah. 1:43 He actually just got fed up one day because he was trying to take the orders, and they were drunk, and he was trying to get their attention. 1:49 They wouldn't acknowledge him, so finally he said, hey, asshole, hey, you with the glasses, come over here, I need to know what's on that hot dog. 1:58 And then it evolved because the employees started doing it, right? 2:01 The employees started having fun with it, and now people actually come here just for the fun and the sometimes there's vulgar language. 2:09 Don't lay those bitches, they're horny. 2:11 Oh, sometimes. 2:12 Yeah, sometimes. More often than that. 2:13 I was gonna say. 2:14 More often than that, yeah. 2:17 We're here to go, pussy lips. 2:18 What's that? 2:19 We're here to go, motherfucker. 2:20 Was it easy to get into? 2:22 No, it wasn't easy at first, but then you know what? Okay, let me see how it started. 2:27 I took an order, and I think a guy said, uh, hey, you fat bitch, let me get a hot dog. 2:32 Now that's on my speed, you know, I'm from the hood, so, oh, fat what? 2:36 So it just started from there. Your mama fat motherfucker, and it just started from there. 2:39 Tip the bucket. 2:40 I ate some fries. 2:41 Tip the bucket. 2:42 I did tip it. 2:43 You didn't tip shit. 2:46 See how long you wait for your fries, motherfucker. 2:48 I want some fries now. 2:49 Now fuck you. 2:50 I got my mouth from my mama. 2:52 And so she come in and seen you here? 2:53 Yeah, she seen me here. 2:54 What she say? 2:55 That's my baby. 2:57 Get him, girl, that's my baby. 2:59 Next bitch in line. Oh, get the fuck out. What do you want? 3:03 Why does it work? Like, why do people want abuse? 3:06 It's a good question. 3:07 Yeah, I think they drink at night and they want to be punished. 3:11 I want that. 3:13 Just like that. Do it again. 3:17 It's very psychological. 3:17 Yeah, that's, I always felt that, I always felt that. 3:20 How many motherfucking fries you want? 3:22 No fries. 3:23 Why not? 3:23 I'm watching my, I'm watching my girlish figure, can't you tell? 3:26 Yeah, you got hips like Beyoncé. 3:27 Never mind, baby. 3:30 At its best, especially early in the evening, this is what it's like. 3:34 Friendly. 3:37 But there's another side to things here. 3:39 Nice headband, you fucking whore. 3:41 Hey, tits. 3:47 You gonna keep waiting, bitch? Pop your thong and sit down, you fucking slut. 3:52 They come in real drunk. Some of them get embarrassed, and then they want to make fun of you. 3:57 It's like an abortion, bitch. I mean your babies, and you love it. 4:02 They would get mad, and next thing you know, you see a hot dog flying, ketchup, anything, you know. 4:08 The boss even got hit in his, um, eye before. 4:11 Have that dick. 4:12 Get your hair done. 4:12 You fucking Ninja Turtle looking bitch. 4:15 It's supposed to be fun, you know? It's supposed to be fun. A lot of people, they just take it beyond the extreme. 4:21 We get some people that come in here and they like to use the N word. 4:25 It's really not no worse thing that you can really say to me. 4:28 Hey everyone, it's a crack break. Don't come for a while. They're gonna go smoke crack in their fucking car. 4:34 Now, all this is happening in a rich white neighborhood in Chicago, a city that is so segregated that demographers actually had to invent a special word for it, hypersegregation. 4:44 Blacks on the south side, whites on the north side. And when the Wiener Circle suspended the normal rules of how people should treat each other, it accidentally unleashed a lot of pent up feelings that probably were pent up for good reasons. 4:57 Yeah, we'll get like 1 or 2 that may come in and you. 5:00 So I'm saying, uh, do you all have monkeys back there, coons back there, you know what I'm saying? 5:04 That make, then that make us, that's piss, that's piss, that'll piss a motherfucker off. 5:10 Because it's just like this. I'm a black bitch in a high kitchen, and for you to come in and say that I look like a monkey or something, you know what I mean? 5:17 That'll make me fuck you up, point blank. Then again, I, that's my job. 5:22 I can't leave behind here to go whoop nobody ass. 5:26 This, this free-for-all has doubled the business, Larry and Barry figure. 5:32 They end up seeing a side of people that honestly changes how you feel about everybody. 5:36 You really wish you never saw it. 5:39 For instance, all night people would come in and ask for a chocolate shake, which is not an item on the menu. 5:51 Chocolate shake is Wiener Circle code for lift up your shirt and shake your chest. 6:10 A woman who worked here once told me that if it weren't for all the yelling, then you're just working at a hot dog stand. 6:18 And the tips are great. Everybody says that. People stay here 10 years, 20 years. 6:24 One woman raised 3 kids with the money she made here, got her daughter into Northwestern. 6:29 You have to do what you have to do, point blank. If you got to keep food on your table for your kids, for yourself, I have it go. 6:36 You ain't never had no high school diploma. Whatever you do, get out there and make your money. 6:40 Make your money. 
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