{"id":432843,"date":"2026-08-14T15:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432843\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T15:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T15:08:08","slug":"pinks-hot-dogs-is-headed-to-tokyo-with-fluffy-souffle-pancake-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/432843\/","title":{"rendered":"Pink’s Hot Dogs is headed to Tokyo with fluffy souffl\u00e9 pancake company"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Los Angeles\u2019s iconic Pink\u2019s Hot Dogs, a local favorite for more than half a century, is setting up shop in Japan.<\/p>\n

The chili dog vendor, which has been at the corner of La Brea and Melrose for 80 years, is set to open its first location in Japan at the end of this year.<\/p>\n

It has signed a deal with the Japanese restaurant group, Sunpark, to open a Tokyo branch by the end of this year and then expand in the country. <\/p>\n

Sunpark manages a variety of restaurant chains, including Takagi Coffee, which is famous for its fluffy souffl\u00e9 pancakes and has an outlet in Beverly Grove<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The family-owned Pink\u2019s opened as a push cart in 1939, selling 10-cent dogs during the Great Depression. <\/p>\n

Its menu features 43 types of hot dogs, many named after famous L.A. figures, including the Drew\u2019s News Dog, Drew Barrymore\u2019s favorite, and the Back-to-Back Dog, dedicated to Shohei Ohtani. <\/p>\n

In the U.S., Pink\u2019s has six locations in Los Angeles and two around Las Vegas, usually inside amusement parks and other venues.<\/p>\n

Richard Pink, a co-owner of Pink\u2019s, said 50-60% of its customers during the summer are Japanese. He said they come to the restaurant after reading about it online, seeing it on social media or just hearing about it through word of mouth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have so many Japanese customers coming to Pink\u2019s and they hear about it, and many of them come with their suitcases, and they\u2019re either coming from the airport or going to the airport,\u201d he said. \u201cThey stop off at Pink\u2019s and want to try a chili dog. It\u2019s fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n

The menu in Japan will feature 15 hot dogs, burgers, and sides. It will have Japan-only toppings local flavors.<\/p>\n

Pink\u2019s opened its first South Korea location in Seoul in November.<\/p>\n

The restaurant opened its first international store in the Philippines in 2016, and has since opened two more in the country. All international locations are run by local operators.<\/p>\n

Pink said the company has has focused on expanding internationally rather than nationally because it\u2019s easier to stand out and make a profit in places where hot dogs aren\u2019t a common sight. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be unique and different in Japan, and hopefully, they like hot dogs as much as Americans do, and they like the authenticity of Pink\u2019s, the history, the Hollywood connection,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so for all those reasons we felt very confident that this was the right move to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the next three years, Pink said he expects five to ten more stores to open in Japan. For the restaurant\u2019s next venture, he said he\u2019s eyeing Australia, Singapore and Mexico. <\/p>\n

Last year, another L.A. staple, Randy\u2019s Donuts, opened its first Japan location in Tokyo, and has multiple locations that sell classic American donuts and Japan exclusives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles\u2019s iconic Pink\u2019s Hot Dogs, a local favorite for more than half a century, is setting up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":432844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[18009,6223,68134,171956,17757,171957,6763,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,1464,78661,9209,53873,171958,16234,72],"class_list":["post-432843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-drew","tag-end","tag-first-location","tag-fluffy-souffle-pancake-company","tag-hot-dog","tag-hot-dogs","tag-japan","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-menu","tag-other-venue","tag-pink","tag-restaurant-chain","tag-sunpark","tag-tokyo","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}