{"id":166249,"date":"2026-03-17T15:15:36","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166249\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T15:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T15:15:36","slug":"twin-hot-dogs-brings-a-beloved-gas-station-snack-home-to-brooklyn-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/166249\/","title":{"rendered":"Twin Hot Dogs brings a beloved gas station snack home to Brooklyn \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC3294.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"_DSC3294\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>A Ukrainian vertical hot dog, a staple at gas stations back home, now serves as a taste of nostalgia at Twin Hot Dogs in Brighton Beach, where brothers Vitalii and Andrei Zherikh recreate the snack that defined their childhood journeys.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by Emma Delahanty<\/p>\n<p>A taste of the Ukrainian road has rolled into Brighton Beach, where vertical hot dogs and automatic coffee are bringing a familiar gas station ritual to a neighborhood shaped by immigrants.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-five-year-old Ukrainian twins Vitalii and Andrei Zherikh opened<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/twins_u.s.a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> Twin Hot Dogs<\/a> on Nov. 18, 2025. After driving across the United States for construction work, the brothers realized something was missing from American gas station fare: good-quality vertical hot dogs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Ukraine, they are at every gas station, and it is associated with you going somewhere,\u201d Vitalii said. \u201cIt is a snack for you and the whole family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The twins grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, and left after the full-scale invasion. Vitalii later obtained <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/archive\/uniting-ukraine\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">United for Ukraine<\/a> status, a two-year humanitarian parole program, and joined his brother and mother, who were already living in New York City.<\/p>\n<p>Working with Andrei in construction, the two traveled a lot, which led to a lot of soul searching about what fulfilling job they could have. And that\u2019s when they began thinking of a business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[We thought,] \u2018what can we bring here that people would like [and] think is cool,\u2019\u201d Vitalii said. \u201cAnd it was like, hot dogs.\u201d<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-239887\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/34545220-5CF6-4F76-BD32-DB4DAC29B1EE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"525\" height=\"700\"  \/>Brothers Vitalii and Andrei Zherikh turned a childhood favorite from Kyiv into Twin Hot Dogs in Brooklyn.Photo courtesy of Vitalii and Andrei Zherikh\n<\/p>\n<p>The brothers spent six months preparing to open the shop, focusing first on finding the right ingredients. Quality and affordability were priorities, and they said they made a promise \u2014 reflected in the pinky-promise logo on their sign \u2014 to themselves and to the community to get it right.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Finding the right bread took time, but the hunt for good meat was a family affair.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe brought the whole family, and bought 20 different sausages,\u201d Vitalii said. \u201cWe cooked them, and everyone put their star \u2014 four stars, five stars \u2014 and we had a vote.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-239864\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC3276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>A symbol of promise: the pinky-promise logo reflects the brothers\u2019 dedication to quality ingredients and community at Twin Hot Dogs.Photo by Emma Delahanty<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge was finding a location and equipment on a budget. Renting or buying quality second-hand materials, such as a European automatic coffee maker, and finding a small location on Brighton Third Street, allowed the two to open shop.<\/p>\n<p>When the shop finally opened, the twins soon realized how much Ukrainians missed this simple snack.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they come, specifically those for the first time, they are excited, because they haven\u2019t had this for three years,\u201d Vitalli said.\n<\/p>\n<p>The brothers are currently preparing for their first summer, which is expected to have heavy foot traffic.<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-239865\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC3278.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\"  \/>Vitalii Zherikh at work, serving up a taste of Ukraine at Twin Hot Dogs in Brighton Beach.Photo by Emma Delahanty\n<\/p>\n<p>While they continue settling into their first storefront, the brothers say they are already thinking ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a plan to open more and to open a franchise,\u201d Vitalli said.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Twin Hot Dogs is located at 3067 Brighton 3rd St. between Brighton Beach and Ocean View avenues in Brighton Beach. The store is open seven days a week from 9 am to 9 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Ukrainian vertical hot dog, a staple at gas stations back home, now serves as a taste of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1369,98,100,99,288,8894,57629,49012,9,24,12,370,63,904,68163,9046,68164],"class_list":["post-166249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brighton-beach","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-business","tag-food-and-drink","tag-gas-station","tag-hot-dogs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-things-to-do","tag-twin-hot-dogs","tag-ukraine","tag-vertical-hot-dogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}