ARLINGTON, Virginia
Maneuvering along the sleak thoroughfares of today's modern mall, the average shopper is tempted by countless businesses
and products but it is the proprietors of mall food courts who are setting tomorrow's standards for cleverness and,
sometimes, literary allusion.
Frank & Stein restaurant is just such an endeavor.
By making the natural connection between hot dogs, beer and an enormous, undead monster made of decaying human body
parts, Frank & Stein is making the food court fun again while reminding patrons of important literary works like
Mary Shelley's 1818 classic Frankenstein.
Sitting amidst the typical Saturday afternoon bustle at Bailey's Crossroads, AdAge Editor Mitch McMichael asserted that much of Frank & Stein's success was due to their name.
"Dr. Frankenstein robbed graves and morgues for newly dead corpses in the hopes of combining the best parts and breathing
life into them. The good folks at Frank & Stein took a similar tact, combining old products like hot dogs and beer and
invigorated them with a little marketing. You can see the natural parallel."
"The larger point is, they've made hot dogs fun again."
P. Everett Goodhouse, CFO of Via Ventures, the parent company overseeing the franchising of all Frank & Stein restaurants, recalled the early days of the Frank & Stein franchise saying, "When we started out we didn't know what we were doing. We were so caught up in the experiment of creating a restaurant that we didn't really think about what we were going to do after we created the thing."
"Originally the plan was to only have one. After all, how many Frank & Steins do you really need, right?
But after awhile the one Frank & Stein franchisee started complaining. He said we had to create another like him,
with whom he could work in the interchange of sympathies and so on."
"We hesitated but he vowed eternal vengeance if we didn't - and promised he'd contain all the subsequent
Frank & Steins to South America. I was against it, I wanted to just head back to Geneva or London but I
knew he'd follow. In the end we relented."
"And now they're all over the damn place."
So how do consumers feel about this?
While Frankenstein has managed to maintain a place in popular culture, few have read the original book and
Mary Shelley's creation has been transformed into a greenish caricature of his true self, being primarily associated
with old horror movies and Halloween. While boomers certainly have fond memories of the hunched wretch,
what about their children? Is Frankenstein's appeal hip enough to induce today's modern teen into dining on hot dogs
and beer?
Shoppers on this Saturday seemed to think so.
"Oh, sure, it's cool," said Meredith Tweedy, 16, "I think it's a totally cool name. It's like the stuff my
English teacher talks about, how sometimes one thing can seem like it means one thing but then it also means something else. This is like that, you look at it and you think 'hot dogs and beer' and then you think 'massive green, moaning thing.' That's awesome."
Peter Coffee, 13, agreed and noted that, "If Frankenstein were alive today I'm sure he'd be happy. It's a
nice tribute, you know? It's about time pro-wrestlers got the respect they deserve."
