Mid-Week Intermission Friend Edition: Zak Drummond of Zee’s Wiener System
Summertime in Austin has long been marked by some of the city’s most recognizable staples – swimming at Barton Springs, margaritas from a number of classic Tex-Mex joints, hot nights out catching live music (at the LC, perhaps). But over the course of these past few sweltering months, a new, yet timeless, icon has been captivating hearts and minds, securing its spot as a fixture of Austin summers – the hot dog pop-up. Across bars, music venues, and community gatherings of all sorts, Austin’s hot dog scene has been growing – so much so, that we now feel comfortable adding Austin summers next to baseball games, backyard BBQs, and even our nation itself, on the list of what the hot dog represents.
Since 2021, Zee’s Wiener System, founded by Zak Drummond, has been a key player in Austin’s hot dog community, bringing a rotating menu of inventive new dogs paired with an East Coast nostalgia that makes each frank a dog-in-a-million. Having toted his hot dog cart down to the Long Center (to the great pleasure of the LC’s staff) for The Drop-In, a Levitt VIBE Series, on several occasions this summer, we thought it would be a great time to talk dogs with Zak before the series wraps up for the summer.
Read on in this Mid-Week Intermission to get Wiener System’s origin story, Zak’s take on the roots behind Austin’s hot dog love, and his answer to the age old question of ketchup vs. mustard.
Welcome to Mid-Week Intermission! We usually like to ask folks for a song to go with their interview — anything come to mind?
ZAK: Purple Rain by Prince comes to mind immediately. While it has nothing to do with hot dogs, it is my daughter’s favorite song right now so it is on repeat nonstop and honestly I can’t think of any other song.
Tell us about yourself! How did you come to be Zee, systematically slinging wieners all around town??
ZAK: Back in 2020 my wife and I landed here in Austin and I immediately started working in the food and beverage world, as I have going back as long as I can remember. I was around a bunch of folks who were running their own food pop-ups and started lending them a hand whenever they’d let me. I got to thinking that it would be fun for me to do something of my own and (this is where the story gets long) as a native Rhode Islander being a hot dog vendor felt like the only choice.
Rhode Island has amazing hot wiener history going back over 100 years and I grew up going to these old holes in the wall (hole in the walls? That can’t be right). They were just such a part of the landscape of my youth so it felt completely natural to toss some dogs on the griddle and feed friends. I started working pop-ups at Fairweather Cider and Better Half, then private parties and corporate gigs and music festivals and on and on. Now I’m almost five years in and can’t imagine doing anything else. A hot dogger for life, I hope.
Many are saying that Austin is currently going through a hot dog renaissance. What do you think is fueling people’s renewed excitement towards the frank?
ZAK: Hot dogs are such a nostalgic and sentimental food. We all have these great hot dog stories. The way the spot down on the corner of our hometown made them, the way our moms sliced them up and tossed them into mac and cheese for dinner on a Tuesday night, the dogs we’ve eaten at ballparks, while traveling the world, or the cheap meals we cooked for ourselves when we first moved out on our own. Hot dogs have always had our backs, and I think folks will always remember that. No matter how much time passes when they finally return to the all powerful hot dog they are reminded that they’ve always had a friend in tubed meat.
With an ever-changing menu of hot dog toppings, do you have a creative process that goes into curating the flavors of your next special dog?
ZAK: I could write about this all day long and it would be a nightmare for anyone to read so I am going to try to keep it as simple as possible. I make hot dogs that I want to eat. I make hot dogs for the seasons. I make hot dogs to make folks happy.
You and your hot dog cart have visited many Austin institutions – from festivals to local dives to baseball fields (and of course, the Long Center). From your perspective, is there an Austin-specific characteristic these spaces share?
ZAK: What I love about what I do—and I have to remind myself of this especially this time of year—is that hot dogs are one of the great foods of the outdoors. The sun shining, if we’re lucky a breeze blowing, a hot dog in hand – that is living. Austin has so many amazing outdoor spaces and I hope that I can continue pulling up with my hot dog cart to feed folks around town for years to come.
Are there any hot dog hills you’re willing to die on?
ZAK: I’d rather not die if at all possible, but if I must, I think a griddled natural casing hot dog is a superior hot dog.
Ketchup or mustard?
ZAK: Mustard. I have a pantry full of mustard. The world of mustard is awesome and fascinating and delicious.
Do you have anything in the works you want to let folks know about?
ZAK: This fall I’ll be running around with my hot dog cart straight into celebrating my business’ five-year anniversary in December. I’ll be working on opening a food trailer where I can expand the menu a bit, show folks what a complete Wiener System experience is and hopefully share the gospel of the hot wiener with even more folks. Everyone can follow along at my Instagram @wienersystem.
Thanks for the chat, Zak!
Be sure to grab a dog from Zee’s Wiener System at the final Drop-In show of the season on August 13!
At the Long Center, we’ve always got a new partnership or something cool we know you’ll want to check out! Find and follow us @longcenter on your social media platform of choice, and we’ll see you real soon.
