LITTLE CURRENT—You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can definitely dress up a pretty fancy gourmet hot dog. Elliott’s Restaurant of Little Current were casting about for a way to give back to the community during this Christmas season when they hit upon the concept of holding a Gourmet Hot Dog evening.
“We get our hot dogs from Burt Farms in Ice Lake,” said Jodie Elliott, who owns and operates the eatery with her husband Jason. “We are putting an Elliott’s spin on it.”
Not to let the dog out of the bag, but some of the creations involve jalapeno poppers, mac and cheese and some everlovin’ BLT action.
A Split Rail craft beer will be paired with each of the gourmet hot dogs to create a unique dining experience. “We are keeping it all local,” said Ms. Elliott.
Originally, the duo had planned to donate the proceeds from the Gourmet Hot Dog evening to the community turkey dinner hosted by local radio station Great Lakes Country 103. “But then we discovered that they were not doing the dinner this year,” said Ms. Elliott. That opened a whole new facet to the concept—one that owners of a restaurant are perfectly poised to pursue.
“We thought ‘why not do it ourselves’,” said Ms. Elliott. So it was that the Elliott’s Community Turkey Dinner was born.
“All of the proceeds from the Gourmet Hot Dog event will be going towards the Tuesday, December 19 complimentary turkey dinner,” said Ms. Elliott. “The dinner will be free and open to anyone who may not be able to have a turkey dinner this Christmas.”
The duo are not going it all their own though, they have enlisted some community partners to assist with the event. “Rodney from Barney’s is donating 120 pounds of turkey and we will be accepting donations towards the event.”
The restaurant’s high school staff will be kicking in some assist and if there is anything left over from the Gourmet Hot Dog fundraising after the turkey dinner, the restaurant will be turning it over to the Manitoulin Secondary School SHARE committee to assist with their good works.
“We are hoping the Gourmet Hot Dog night will be well received,” said Ms. Elliott. “It should be a really fun event and a chance for people to put the pre-holiday stress behind and just come out, have some fun, and support a great community cause.”
The Gourmet Hot Dog night will take place Monday, December 18 from 4 pm to 8 pm and the turkey dinner will take place the following day, Tuesday evening on December 19.
