![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/mel_fb.png\")
Credit: Photo via Mel’s Hot Dogs\/Facebook<\/p>\nCredit: Photo via Mel’s Hot Dogs\/Facebook<\/p>\n
Food trends come and go, but hot dogs are forever.<\/p>\n
Mel\u2019s Hot Dogs opened around the corner from Busch Gardens during the free-loving 1970s, and survived the diet fads of Atkins, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Keto and countless movements that discourage ultra-processed meat tubes between white bread. And it\u2019ll inevitably survive MAHA and the GLP-1 epidemic. <\/p>\n
The Tampa hot dog shop was one of the Vienna Beef Hall of Fame\u2019s <\/a>first inductees in 2006, and now its new owners\u2014The Szabo family as of 2023<\/a>\u2014want to celebrate two decades of all-beef doggin\u2019 on Memorial Day.<\/p>\n Everyone who shows up between noon and 5 p.m. on Monday gets a free prize worth up to $20, and purchases of a dog or a sandwich come with raffle tickets for thousands in prizes. <\/p>\n The event also includes free vendor samples of food, drinks and beer, as well as a face painter and dunk tank (hopefully not filled with hot dog water).<\/p>\n While Portillo\u2019s tests out shablams for kids<\/a> and the new Sapphire Lounge sells wagyu glizzies<\/a>, Tampa\u2019s hot dog OG has started biweekly game nights.<\/p>\n The longtime \u201cBest of the Bay\u201d champ<\/a> hosts bingo every second Tuesday<\/a> and trivia every fourth Tuesday<\/a>. Players can get a free game card with a purchase of a basket or kids meal, and prizes are awarded after every game.<\/p>\n There is no cover for Mel\u2019s Hot Dogs\u2019 Vienna Beef Hall of Fame 20th Anniversary happening Monday, May 25 in Tampa.<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in May 07 \u2013 13, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSelene San Felice is managing editor of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Prior to joining CL in 2025, she started the Axios Tampa Bay newsletter and worked for her hometown paper, The Capital in Annapolis,…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/481120261_1167564448713039_8928953036382564693_n.webp\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Selene San Felice\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Photo via Mel’s Hot Dogs\/Facebook Food trends come and go, but hot dogs are forever. Mel\u2019s Hot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119455,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-279949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-mels-hot-dogs","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}