The plastic skeleton behind the gothic hot dog cart doesn’t say much, but the little card resting on the brass tip jar says enough: HOPE TO URN YOUR TIP. The massive torso of Frankenstein’s monster (also taciturn) balances atop the cart, hovering over the customers who line up each weekend for “vegan haunt dogs” and sandwich specials with such monikers as Swamp Thing, the Scarecrow, the Creepshow and the Necro-Nom-Dog.
Ray Alishan (né Groves) — the caped, often top-hatted man behind the Frankenstand — has been popping up around Los Angeles since 2005, serving cheeky horror with hot dogs.
“I love a themed place. I happen to just like spooky stuff,” says Alishan, who is 44 (and has been vegan since he was 16). “I think with Halloween, in general, everybody likes that. Most people like to get spooky once in a while, I think.”
Owner Ray Alishan and his wife, Eileen, at the Frankenstand in Burbank. (The skeleton helper is unnamed.)
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
For Alishan, however, Halloween lasts year-round. Named for Frankenstein’s monster — which subsisted on a vegan diet of berries and acorns in Mary Shelley’s novel — the all-vegan Frankenstand blares Bauhaus and Sisters of Mercy from the speakers while incense wafts up around the skeleton. Customers are instructed to “choose your ending” with build-your-own options of Dr. Frankens (frankfurters) or Witches (beer bratwursts) with toppings such as mustard, barbecue sauce, relish and fried onions, or opt for specials such as the Swamp Thing (the proceeds of which go toward planting trees), a vegan “frankenfurter” drowned in Alishan’s chili of beans, spices and soy meat, plus his house-made nacho cheese-like sauce, a convincing blend of carrots, potatoes, spices, nondairy milk and nutritional yeast.
Although Alishan relies on Tofurky and Field Roast for meatless dogs, he tinkers with the toppings and sauces like a kind of culinary Dr. Frankenstein to bring life to chipotle mayo, habanero aioli and more — sometimes starting with a base of Vegenaise, sometimes making his own from cashews — with each sauce sitting in a squeeze bottle labeled after a classic movie monster.
The fascination began early. A favorite childhood film was “The Dark Crystal,” and seeing his first horror movie, “The Invisible Man,” led the future musician and hot dog vendor down a rabbit hole to Frankenstein and other classic Universal movie monsters, as well as “The Twilight Zone” and the black-and-white horror films of Alfred Hitchcock and William Castle.
But enjoyment of the Frankenstand isn’t limited just to horror fanatics or vegans; Alishan says that many of his customers eat meat and that most aren’t visibly drawn to the darker arts.
“It doesn’t matter to me. I want anyone to come,” he says. “I don’t want to attract a certain person or certain people. I want to be open to everyone and anyone.”
The Frankenstand’s top seller is the Swamp Thing, Alishan’s vegan take on a chili cheese dog. A dollar from each Swamp Thing sold benefits the National Forest Foundation.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
On Sundays, the Frankenstand crops up at the decidedly less spooky Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita, where ticketed entry grants access to an animal sanctuary as well as Alishan’s plant-based hot dogs. On Saturday afternoons, the “haunt dogs” can be found outside Burbank’s Mystic Museum, a combination retail shop, art space and museum dedicated to oddities, horror and the occult, where customers line up for the singular spooky food cart or order ahead with “curse-side pickup.”
Eventually, Alishan hopes to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, perhaps a roadside stand, for his hot dogs and the more elaborate dishes he’s been dreaming up for years. What he’d really love, though, is his own haunted house. Hell, he jokes, maybe he’ll combine the two: “Maybe they come through [it] and get a dog afterwards.”
Follow the Frankenstand on Instagram for menu and schedule updates at @thefrankenstand.
