Smoke boiled up from Skyline Park. Biker Jim was at it again.
If man-bites-dog is a story, Jim Pittenger is headline news five days a week. He owns and operates Biker Jim’s Gourmet Dogs, a lunch cart you can find weekdays at 16th and Arapahoe streets in Denver.
I swung by late Tuesday morning before the crowd hit.
Pittenger was caramelizing onions, splashing in Coke now and again to speed the process. This is his third year with the cart. He loves the job.
“I spent 18 years as a repo man, which means you spend hours in a car,” he said. “Here, I’m my own boss. Though truth to tell, that makes everyone else your boss.”
Pittenger’s stand features an array of sausages, mainly game. Thanks to the man’s brats and banter, it is one of the most popular in the city.
“When I started out, I figured if I sold 100 a day, I could make a living,” said Pittenger, who sports silver earrings and a graying ponytail. “And I’m making a living.”
Just past noon, 14 customers stood in line. They were a demographer’s dream: office types fleeing their cubicles, construction workers, shop clerks, a few club kids getting a tubesteak- fueled jump on the evening.
John Watson had slipped away from his job at a pizzeria for a sausage fix. He ordered three elk dogs.
Watson leaned toward me like he was confiding a secret. “I’ve been coming here over a year,” he said. “These are the best hot dogs I’ve ever had, and I’ve lived all over.”
A guy in a trench coat stepped up. He wanted to know if the veal bratwurst was the real deal.
“It’s so German that I can spell the name of the folks who make it, but I can’t pronounce it,” Pittenger said.
The guy almost went misty. “I’ve dreamed about this all day,” he said.
Pittenger dropped a brat on the grill and deftly sliced it lengthwise with a knife.
Inside a minute, eight more dogs sizzled away. The lunchtime siege was underway.
Menus vary, but the eye-popping rotation includes elk, buffalo, reindeer, boar, pheasant, chicken andouille and Cajun boudin. A bacon dog was a hit. Ditto for a sausage featuring mac-and-cheese in a casing.
Some days, Pittenger splits a larger hot dog in half and stuffs it with a smaller one. “I call it the ‘You Gotta Be Kidding Me Dog,’ ” he said. “It’s the turducken of hot dogs.”
Yes, traditionalists and the timid can opt for a Hebrew National kosher beef dog.
The elk-jalapeño sausage is Pittenger’s big seller. Regulars order the $4 dog with sauteed onions and cream cheese, which he applies with a restaurant-grade caulking gun.
A kid in style-council glasses wondered aloud if this concoction was such a good idea.
Pittenger grinned.
“I think my wife summed it up best,” he said. “Cream cheese and jalapeños go together like helpless women and railroad tracks.”
I asked about the name “Biker Jim,” which in fussier circles might not inspire culinary confidence. “Well, it sounds a lot better than ‘Jim the Guy Who Lives in the Suburbs Gourmet Dogs,’ ” he said. “And I do ride a scooter.”
Pittenger mulled his dog-day afternoons.
“You don’t get death threats in this line of work like you do as a repo man,” he said with a laugh. “I’m a chatterbox. I move my hands, people give me money. It’s a nice way to make a living.”
William Porter’s column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at 303-954-1977 or wporter@denverpost.com.
