The Original Hot Dog Shop will be sticking around in Oakland.
"It looks like we're here to stay," said Bruce Simon, son of owner Sid Simon. He declined to elaborate further.
Late in 2005, owner Sid Simon announced the landmark restaurant, affectionately known as the "Dirty O," was for sale. Simon told the Trib business was off, and he was hanging it up. Too much violent crime in Oakland, Simon said.
His remarks came a few weeks after a 24-year-old man was fatally shot near the restaurant at 3 a.m. Oct. 20, 2005.
The Simon family intended to sell the business, but not the name. The asking price: $885,000.
At the time, Teri Campisano, Sid Simon's daughter, said the family wouldn't sell if it didn't get the price it wanted.
Why the "O" is off the market isn't clear, and the family isn't shedding any light on the subject. But Ned Sokoloff, president of Specialty Group Bar and Restaurant Brokerage in Ross -- the "Realtor to the Bars" -- said announcing the sale of the "O" so publicly probably was a mistake, and might have made it hard to find a buyer.
"There's no question they shot themselves in the foot, trying to make a deal on their own and letting it out that they were selling," Sokoloff said. "It should have been an inside deal, maybe with people outside the city. If they had handled the sale of that store properly, they probably would have gotten what they wanted."
But he doesn't think the announcement of the sale was a tactic to increase business at the "O." Sokoloff said a business on the market too long -- like a house-- depreciates in value the longer it's listed. Restaurant owners often put their companies up for sale with an asking price that's too high, and when they get offers that feel "insulting," they decide it's not worth it, Sokoloff said.
"Sometimes, if they can't get what they're looking for, a restaurant owner will decide it's just cheaper to stay open," he added.
The business history of the O has included a few failed ventures, and a few that didn't get off the ground. The South Side "O" opened in 1999, but closed in 2002.
In 2003, Sid Simon told the Trib he was planning a regional expansion of the restaurant. The long-term goal, Simon said, was to open stores within a 1,000-mile radius of Pittsburgh. He planned to put the new stores on or near college campuses, a strategy that made the original Original successful.
The O's shop on Carnegie Mellon's campus closed in May 2006. The company's other location is on Golden Mile Highway in Plum Borough.
Sokoloff said the Simon family should be praised for the amount of sweat equity they've put into the O. "It's a lot of headaches, and sometimes it's overwhelming, running a restaurant," he said. "They should be given a medal of valor or something for the years they've spent in Oakland."
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