When the Durham concessions stand Tropical Delights is up and running in its usual spot—the Flow Volkswagen parking lot off 15-501—it sometimes flies a willowy flag from an easement by the road, advertising HOT DOGS to cars streaming past.
Other times, it goes flagless. One such day, I pull up with the sense of being in on a secret—without the flag, there’s no indication that Tropical Delights serves food as well as sweet treats. The trailer’s exterior, rendered in the oceanic neonwave of a boogie board, bears a menu of just lemonades, smoothies, and Dole Whips™. Painted in blue text above the menu, the business’s tagline, “The Original Pineapple Guys,” is also decidedly beverage-coded, as is its logo, a hollow pineapple goblet with two pineapple rings hooked on the rim like arms slung over the edge of a hot tub (the “guys,” perhaps.)
From the curb, then, Tropical Delights is drinks all the way down. But I know otherwise. I used to live nearby, and one afternoon when the flag was out, I picked up a footlong hot dog and took it back to eat by the pool at my old apartment. It became something of a summer ritual. (The drinks operation and the hot dog operation do feel a little at odds with each other, yes, but there’s also a sort of structural logic; a hollowed-out pineapple is an edible vessel for a smoothie the same way a bun is for a dog. Is a hot dog a sandwich bread bowl?)
You’ll see the dog menu on a sandwich board when you park and walk up. The options are a footlong for $8, two standard dogs for $7, or a thicker “big dog” for $9, all of them all-beef and available with unlimited free toppings. There’s also a lunch combo: two standard dogs, a large lemonade, and chips for $10. That’s what I’m going for today…