"Known as the The Hot Dog Dude a moniker given to him by Santa Clara University students that he wears with pride Gibbins was feeding hungry commuters long before Levi's Stadium was erected next door. He splashed onto the food truck scene 25 years ago when he bought a white roach coach, painted it with American flags and began operating Burger Man Cruising Cafe."
"So, he went from flipping burgers to slinging sausages and dogs from a cart he parks between the train tracks and Stars and Stripes Drive. I bring happiness to people, Gibbins said. My main customers are the commutersI'm able to produce a little bit of food, a little bit of warmth in the stomach. But the last five years have been tough."
"Now, Gibbins and other street vendors in the area face another obstacle: Super Bowl LX. The Big Game will be held in Santa Clara for a second time on Feb. 8, and with it comes a plethora of rules and regulations imposed on the city by its kingmaker, the NFL. That includes the adoption of a clean zone, which serves as a security perimeter for law enforcement and aims to regulate and restrict advertising and commercial activities in the area."
Howard Gibbins, known as The Hot Dog Dude, has sold food at Santa Clara’s Great America Transit station for more than two decades. He began with a white, American-flag-painted roach coach called Burger Man Cruising Cafe and later moved to a cart parked between the train tracks and Stars and Stripes Drive. Commuters make up his primary customer base. The COVID-19 pandemic and the shift to remote work drastically reduced commuter traffic and vendor income over the past five years. Super Bowl LX brought a more-than-4-square-mile NFL clean zone that restricts outdoor food and beverage sales and commercial activity around Levi’s Stadium.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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