Manouch Hot Dog Stand

Manouch’s pretzels and hot dogs — right in front of Tower Records — satiating to say the least. Always personable and welcoming. The grilled onions on the hot dogs is what stood out for me. Warm welcoming cart in the cold fun winter DC nights — solid satisfying street food and great personable welcoming personality.

I am terribly sad for the GW underclassmen who will never be able to encounter the mysterious philosophy, humorous life stories, and not to mention the best post-​party food EVER KNOWN TO MAN/​WOMAN (precautionary note to avoid scowles from women’s studies majors) that Manouch once brought to our campus.
Regardless of all the recent controversy around him, it’s safe to say that he is a hard working business man who takes the time to get to know the customers that give him the respect he deserves.
Manouch if you ever read this, «vaghan damet gahrm» … you will always be a part of my GW experience, and I wish you the best.
Also what is the world without GW sauce at 3am… its depressing, that’s what.

Manouch hot dog is THE BEST!
There are obviously a lot of drunk and/​or high college students in line that can get pretty obnoxious but what do you expect?! It’s IN GW campus and open until 3 or 4 or something.
I always get the half smoked trio which consists of the half smoked hot dog, chili, cheese, and GW secret sauce. Mmmmmm I’m literally salivating just thinking about the combination of perfection for my taste buds made on this simple food stand. The cheese sauce is suuuper good because he mixes sriracha in it. It’s an amazing counterpart to his pretzel, which I also usually get.
The only confusing thing is pricing. Sometimes it’s $ 2.50, sometimes it’s around $ 4. Maybe there’s some sort of early night special before all the drunkies roll in? I’m not quite sure. I’ve been here sober and also completely inebriated so that probably has a lot to do with my incomprehension regarding price… Regardless, same great taste!
My favorite thing about Manouch is that he really makes an effort to establish a friendship with each and every one of his customers. He knows a lot of my friends and I BY NAME. He asks how my parents and siblings are, which is amazing because my parents have only had Manouch around a total of 5 times in the span of 8 years! AMAZING MEMORY! He is soooo friendly and funny! You can expect a story while he’s preparing your food.
I always recommend this spot to my friends and family who aren’t even from the DMV area. Even though its not a touristy spot, I really think everyone who goes to DC NEEDS to try manouch. Its literally life changing. And the best munchie food ;]

There is no hot dog stand in the city like Manouch. More of an experience than a meal. Fresh cheese, great Chili, and of course their hot dog is good.

I loooove Manouch! Come 2am, after studying, he is the place to go to! He would serenade us as he prepared our hot dogs. I don’t even know what he would put on them, but it was delicious!

Welcome to GW little children. After you get shitfaced at the basement of some frat party, get your whiny ass out and EAT THIS SHIEEEEEET
He can be rude in a lot of cases:
1. You’re drunk and noisy
2. There’s a long line
3. You smell like drugs (or sex)
4. You try to take pictures (this really gets on him like a pubescent girl finding out Bieber isn’t going to perform at the Verizon Center).
5. You’re an adult (seriously lol)
If you can get by all that, he serves a DIESEL hot dog (half smoke all the way) and perfect pretzel (psh J street auntie anne’s when your old ass goes to bed, manouche wakes up). I usually get his pretzel with cheese dip, which has the perfect amount of sriracha for that SUPA HOT FIYAH.
He plays the late night market well; items are cheap when he opens up shop, then hikes up prices when it’s prime time drunk undergrads who couldn’t get laid slither to his stand. If you get there when he’s about to close (around 3:40AM), he’ll give you cheap/​free goods since he’s got to throw that out.
The reason he hates pictures is because he failed a food safety inspection a while back. THUG LIFE

Insulting and rude.
It all started at 1am in the customarily long line, my wife notices that there are only a few pictures of Manouch’s hotdog stand on Unilocal,so she lifts up her phone to snap one. At this he yells that he doesn’t want his picture taken. Ok, that’s fine. Many people don’t want their picture taken, I get it. My wife deletes it and thinks that’s the end. No. Incredulously, he yells that he wants to inspect her phone to confirm his image is deleted. She reaffirms that it is deleted, but there is no chance he is touching my wife’s phone.
Behind three international students from Korea who are ordering dogs, we overhear them ordering 3 dogs, and 2 cokes. First off, he yells at them to show him the cokes, as if he doesn’t trust them these young Korean GW students, who by the way are not drunk. He then confirms the order, 3 dogs and 2 cokes, that’ll be $ 19. They handed the money over and he yelled at them to confirm that they had paid $ 19. Very puzzling indeed how aggressive he was being to these poor kids who had patiently waiting in the cold, and were probably the best behaved of the drunken crowd.
We step up and I order a small dog with GW Sauce. He informs us that the small beef dogs are not ready, but chicken is. Our preference is beef, and we politely let him know that we’re in no rush, so we don’t mind waiting. He then huffs and puffs and tells us that he’ll do us a favor and give us the large for the price of the small. Ok, that’s nice of him. He then asks for $ 3. I could have sworn he said they were $ 2 for the small dogs (not to mention that I had read in another review from jsut a couple of months ago that they were $ 2), but I just admit that I must have misunderstood. He then suddenly gets even more irritated and becomes very passive aggressive telling me that if I don’t think the dog is worth the extra dollar, I can keep it. I pull the extra dollar out and again tell him I misunderstood and offer the dollar. This sends him into a frenzy and he very dismissively tells my wife and I to keep our dollar.
At this point I am flabbergasted. Not only is Manouch the biggest douche in Foggy Bottom (and that’s really saying something), but he just ripped off those young Korean students. Three $ 4 hotdogs and two $ 1.50 drinks is $ 15 total. I am now wondering if he pulls this act often to intimidate students, or even worse, foreign students into paying more?
Perhaps once upon a time, Manouch was a friendly late night face on the GW campus, but those days are far behind him. He is now an aged curmudgeon preying on international students and folks he thinks are going to be intimidated by his raised voice. Someone this conniving no doubt does the same to drunk students.
Shame on you Manouch. You are a FAIL.

Based on the reviews, I’ve come to the conclusion that you must be drunk and unaware of your surroundings to appreciate Manouch. We were not, and all we left with was a bad taste in our mouths, even despite the hot dog being pretty OK.
Being the dutiful Unilocaler that I am, I took my phone out to take a picture of the stand. This is apparently a Very Big Deal, and I was instructed to erase the photo. While I silently questioned what right he had to prevent me from taking a picture of a public street, I respected his desire for privacy and complied. Silly of me to think that would be the end of it. He actually demanded to see my phone so he could confirm that the photo was in fact erased. He then proceeded to complain to the customer ahead of us about people taking his picture, and how he didn’t want the «celebrity.» Give me a break, I wasn’t even trying to get him, I wanted the stand and he happened to be in the way.
After Manouch tried to push a chicken dog on us as the small beef hot dog we ordered wasn’t ready, we were offered a larger dog for the same price, presumably to move the line along. We misheard the price, and when this was pointed out to us, we handed him the extra dollar for the difference. Apparently, mishearing him had somehow offended Mr. Manouch terribly, and he totally drama-​queened on us. Despite us explaining that we had simply misheard, he absolutely refused to take the extra dollar if we «didn’t feel good about it» or «felt it wasn’t worth it.»
Aside from our own experience, I can’t help but suspect that Manouch is a little fast and loose with his pricing. There were three students in front of us, speaking amongst themselves in Korean. Forget the fact that, despite chatting up the three young women in front of them, Manouch didn’t speak one word to these young men. Forget the fact that he made them show him what they were taking from the drink cooler. He confirmed their order of «three hot dogs and two drinks,» and somehow charged them $ 19. And then confirmed with them that they had given him $ 19. Considering that the large hot dogs are $ 4 apiece, I can’t imagine that a can of soda costs $ 3.50 at Manouch’s stand.
What a sour experience. We agreed that the hot dogs definitely weren’t good enough to be worth subjecting ourselves to Manouch’s unreasonable mood swings ever again.

For what you can get from this cart during those nights that require a particular type of sustenance, this is probably one of the places that can satisfy that special craving of odds and ends that occur with late nights of: partying, merry making, studying, etc.
This is a hot dog stand, so don’t expect anything grandiose. However, for a hot dog stand, it’s not too shabby, considering there are many topping choices and things are made to order. Hot dogs can come with a variety of toppings and pretzels are buttered, warmed up, and salted to order. Be sure to try the cheese sauce with the pretzel and/​or hotdog (def with the pretzel if anything); the cheese sauce has a bit of a tiny spicy kick to it with the mixed in sriracha.
Especially since the hot dogs and pretzels are made to order in this tiny cart, it does take time. Also, depends on what time of night you come. So, bundle up if it’s chilly outside. However, Manouch will make it worth your time with some music and entertainment. Or, you may learn the alphabet in another language during your wait time!
A good late night eats if you’re in the area and only have a few dollars to spend.

WOW
These are awesome…
Not only goes he extra grill your hot dog, but he grills the bun too, and he has fresh onion, cheese, chili, kraut, EVERYTHING and only for $ 2
They taste awesome and you gotta go there. no excuses

Favorite late-​night snack in Foggy Bottom after a night out. Manouch is hilarious and his hot dogs and pretzels are perfect at 2 AM. His GW sauce is unique and everything is cooked thoroughly. The half-​smoke is a must and the cheese sauce with the pretzel is especially necessary.

let’s be honest, i can’t say much that hasn’t already been said about manouch’s stand. it holds a special place in the heart of every gw alum. it’s one of the few things at gw that really feel like college… a late night place to eat where everyone is sloppy.
if manouch loves you, he’ll sing you a song and honk his horn (2 honks if you’ve really impressed him). if he really loves you (or perhaps if you visit too often), he’ll give you a nickname… a friend was dubbed «sean penn». and for the record? we love him right back.
you have to go. you have to get a pretzel AND a hotdog and you have to get gw sauce. waking up with nacho cheese on your shirt the next day is part of the special experience.
my heart hurts thinking about the day that drunken gw students can’t enjoy this tradition.

As a GW Alum this place brings back memories
At least I think they are memories.
Ok alcohol induced thoughts.
My goal this year is to eat one with a clear mind and revisit this review
I remember it to be an amazing hot dog
Food 4
Service well it’s Manouch
Cleanliness (I don’t want to know… And never looked)

Seeing this pop up as one of the highest rated on Unilocal makes me reminisce on the old days at GW. Coming back from a night on the town or a house party and making sure to stop by Manouch. I would brave the line no matter how long rain or shine, hot or cold just to have one of his spectacular hotdogs.
My friends and I would make it a habit to stop by order a couple of half smokes with GW sauce and chat with Manouch for a couple of minutes. He is one of the nicest guys I have ever met and seemed to never forget us no matter how many people he met or how long in between visits. After writing this review I am thinking about braving the cold and joining the young crowd of drunk college students for a reunion.

Whoa, the average ratings for Manouch is 4.5? I don’t want to rain on the parade here, but to me Manouch is… ehh. Then again, my palet is a bit more sophisticated with regards to hot dogs, being a native New Yorker, we naturally have a better sense for certain cuisine… I diverge, back to the topic please.
Let’s be honest in explaining why there’s such approval for Manouch…
(1) Manouch is a cool dude.
He immigrated to this great nation and got his hustle on the legal way. The line for a dog would be cut in half if you weren’t yapping it up with Manouch. He reminds me of a cool cab driver who promotes festive activity while you’re drunk
(2) You’re drunk/​high.
Nobody is ever itching for a Manouch hot dog when it’s lunch time on Monday.
(3) Everyone else in line is drunk/​high.
Back in my Lafayette Hall/​Potomac dorm days, would see plenty of fun people to converse with, as we all shared a common goal.
Manouch has capitalized on the college location, and it’s worked for him. If you’re out of the college age range demographic, then this late night favorite may not be for you, unless you’re trying to relive the college years.

I’m not trying to write checks Manouch can’t deliver on these days… BUT when I was an undergrad at GW (2002 – 2006) he made a special deal with me and some friends that if we called at 5 am exactly, he would drive to where we were and deliver 5 hot dogs for $ 5. It was glorious– he once did it during a snow storm.
That man is a friendly, awesome, hot dog machine. Not to mention his secret sauce. Wish I still had a reason to be in Foggy Bottom late at night just to stop in for one… if I still had my college cell phone might even try to see if he’d remember his friends with the 5 for 5 at 5.

Food/​Price: (4.5) It’s a hot dog stand — prices were low as they should be. Manouch’s prices seem to vary slightly between certain hours or certain customers. My friends and I all got hot dogs ($ 2.00) topped with his special GW sauce, nacho cheese sauce, caramelized onions, and chili; one pretzel with his spicy cheese dip ($ 2.50) to share; and one coke ($ 1.50). Total came to nice, round $ 10. Some other friends of mine seem to recall getting hot dogs for a few cents more, but his drinks a few cents less. Weird. The food itself was surprisingly good (and no we had not consumed alcohol before). The hot dogs were suffocated with so much sauce and toppings that I was skeptical about the massive mixing of flavors, but it turned out quite good as all the flavors just melded into one another. If I was being picky, I would say that the hot dog itself needed more of a char for bite and the bun should be toasted — but hey, I realize this is just a stand. Next we turn to the pretzel. Manouch starts with a regular, run-​of-​the-​mill pretzel from stadium or movie theaters, but he works his magic on them and they turn into something else. His pretzels are wrapped in foil and then set upon his burner before being smashed by a pot that Manoush uses to panini-​fy his pretzels. The result? Delicious. The pretzel had a nice crunch on the outside and the inside was warm and soft. Pair that with his spicy cheese dip (nacho cheese sauce with a squirt of sriracha) and you definitely have a winner.
Ambiance: (5) For a hot dog stand, this place has a great atmosphere. Manouch is quirky (see the Service section below) and his personality lends strength and character to his entire establishment (cart). Course this isn’t a sit-​down restaurant, but the experience of talking to him is enough for me to give him a full rating.
Location: (5) We found him in front of CVS on 21^st Street, between H and I Street. The place is relatively well lit as it is between the Marvin Center and CVS.
Service: (5) This guy is a character alright. Imagine either an astronaut or scientist who had been sent out on a solo research mission and had been stationed in space/​the antarctic with only himself for company for many months. Now imagine yourself, the customer, as his first visitor in a long time. Yea, kind of like that. He talks continuously about subjects pulled from the ethers, is opinionated and does not hesitate to share his thoughts, and always seems to be doing something in his spaceship/​station of a hot dog stand. You gotta love him though. Plus, his chatter helps the time pass as your food heats up.
Overall: (4) My one big complaint with Manouch is his hours. He only comes out Thursdays through Sundays from about 10pm to the wee hours of the morning. For those of us who don’t party all weekend or want to eat at such late hours, Manouch would not be an option at all. In fact, I would not have been able to taste his food if I had not been at GW watching a performance that ended around 10pm. I’m sure the students and night owls around the Foggy Bottom area love his hours, but I personally would like to seem him out a bit earlier, even if only for one day a week. And dare I suggest lunch? He would make a killing.

This guy is awesome. Conversing with him is just as good as the hot dogs. He is one of the most interesting, kindest people that you will get a chance to talk to. I got a pretzel and while it took a while to get ready it was really good. My friends loved their hot dog. Definitely a good late night place. The place is cheap and has great food and phenomenal service, what else could you want?
This isn’t just a place to eat. It is an experience.

Oh Manouch, you are so reliable.
He is probably the only street cart around in DC this time of night. I remember those GW days when I would get hot dogs in the middle of the night because of you. It would be 3AM in the morning and there would be a line of GW kids in the middle of the block for this hot dog stand.
His service is fast, he is friendly, and his hot dogs are spectacular. For a couple of bucks, get yourself the the half smoke with cheese, chili, and GW sauce. Perfecto.
Thank you for all the short friendly converations, your serenades, and most importantly, your delicious hot dogs. :)

Good god I love Manouch (the man and the dog). As a GW alum, I’ve visited Manouch on a drunken late night many a time, and the long wait in line is never for nothing. It’s such a long line because Manouch is a talker (but in the best kind of way). He’s an awesome man — originally from Iran and with a BS in electronic technology, but he’d rather run a hot dog stand because he loves people.
Try a hot dog with GW sauce. Manouch won’t tell anyone what’s in it, but it’s a relish-​y type sauce that is completely orgasmic. A definite must after a long night of drinking. Another good option is a pretzel with hot n’ spicy cheese sauce. Just thinking about it has gotten me both nostalgic and hungry! If you find yourself wandering Foggy Bottom late at night, make a stop at Manouch — you’ll be glad you did!