SOUTH BEND — Every time Waka Dog Cafe owner Angel Gomez sees a Chicago hot dog, she’s reminded of where she grew up.
In fact, she has a poster hanging in the restaurant to refresh her memory of exactly what she misses about being a Chicagoan, such as buying an umbrella every six months or claiming the Sears Tower is the tallest skyscraper in the world (it no longer is and isn’t in the Top 20 anymore).
Gomez and her husband Frankie became full-time owners of Waka Dog in 2024 after the third owner, Josh Gobel, closed the restaurant in August 2023 because of the rising costs of running a family-owned restaurant and the demands of other businesses operated by the family.
There were many things Gomez loved about the restaurant before becoming the owner: the family-friendly atmosphere, the warm employees and, of course, the classic Chicago dog.
“I wanted to build on that,” Gomez said. “When we first took over, a lot of people were hesitant.”
After getting its start at 114 Lincoln Way E., Waka Dog — as in Mishawaka — moved to its current location at 1809 South Bend Ave in 2013 and was passed through three different owners before the Gomezes took over.
Despite getting her degree to be a medical assistant, Gomez grew up working at her dad’s small Mexican restaurant, which she described to be half of the size of Waka Dog’s seating area. When the opportunity presented itself to take over the beloved hot dog cafe, Gomez believed it was her chance to make a hidden dream come true.
“I always wanted to have my own restaurant,” Gomez said. “You kind of get tired of not being your own boss or, you know, you have to play into office politics [and] all this other stuff. I didn’t want to do that anymore.”
Shaking it up
While Gomez may have decided to follow in her father’s footsteps, there’s a few things she wanted to do differently.
“He served fried tacos, fideo, and beans. That’s all he sold,” Gomez said. “There was really never anything that he went out of the box to do.”
From the moment they became owners, the couple decided to shake up the well-loved Waka Dog menu while keeping fan-favorite hot dogs.
Incorporating elements of her’s and her husband’s heritage was an important driving factor in deciding what new items would be added to the menu, Gomez said, as well as considering what traditional hot dogs customers may want to see.
“It was a gamble to doing that, but it’s our Mexican heritage. I’m Mexican and Italian, [and] my husband is Mexican,” Gomez said. “We wanted to put that on there and it seemed to work out well.”
It’s not uncommon to see every family member at a Waka Dog table eating a different meal. Some customers gravitate towards the authentic Mexican food while others want to try the smash burgers. And it’s impossible to forget about the classic and specialty hotdogs made with Vienna Beef straight from Chicago.
The goal was to have something for everyone, Gomez said.
Exploring just how far the menu could go didn’t stop with the addition of Mexican food, smash burgers or wraps, but further extended into the realms of hot dogs of the month and soups of the day.
Last month’s hot dog was the Cinco de Mayo dog, which was topped with a homemade jalapeno salsa, mustard, ketchup, cilantro and a charred, fried serrano pepper. As for the soups of the day, Gomez brings in the big guns — her grandmothers’ recipes.
“This week, I’m doing, from my Italian grandmother’s repertoire, a Sicilian chicken soup,” Gomez said. “If I run out of ideas, I ask [customers], ‘What do you want to eat this week?’ … People will come inside, and they ask me for chicken and dumplings, so last week, I made chicken and dumplings for them.”
Gomez loves that the restaurant allows her to be creative, she said, and in coming up with unique recipes for the community to try. She also works to bring localized classics for customers to try, such as the Sonoran hot dog from Mexico that become popularized in Arizona or the Chicago-based Maxwell Street Polish sausage.
One of the most exciting, yet intimidating, parts of owning the restaurant so far has been learning how to navigate the kitchen, Gomez said. Her husband, Frankie, put his brick laying job of 25 years aside to support her dream. Now, he knows every recipe like the back of his hands.
“It was different for him, but he is so much more relaxed and calm,” Gomez said. “People are amazed when they hear the story.”
Building bonds one meal at a time
Community engagement is huge for Gomez, which is why the restaurant is littered with board games and coloring books.
Sometimes that engagement looks like a monthly competition of “guess how many M&Ms are in this jar for a chance to win a free hotdog,” and other times it looks like University of Notre Dame students bringing their families into their favorite restaurant down the street from campus.
“We’re just so blessed for all the people that we’ve met in this journey here,” Gomez said. “We meet different people every day. We know their birthdays, their anniversaries and when something special is coming up for them.”
Every May since they’ve taken over ownership has been particularly rough for the Gomezes as they say goodbye to their favorite graduates. For a two-week period, Gomez said, the entire staff is very emotional.
“They say, ‘Hey, don’t worry, we’ll come back for alumni event. We’ll come back, and we’ll come see you,’” Gomez said. “They brought their parents in. One guy was like, ‘I wanted to see what my daughter was eating all these years; what I was paying for.’ … We took pictures with all the graduates. They came inside and told us goodbye, and you have to keep it together; otherwise, you’ll be bawling all the time.”
With a main goal to make people happy, Gomez said, the Waka Dog staff approaches uplifting other local businesses the same way they support customers. The family has no qualms against shouting out a new restaurant on their Facebook page or visiting other hot dog restaurants on their days off.
Regardless of the time the Gomezes have under their feet as business owners, the support provided by the previous owners shows Gomez that the family is heading in the right direction.
“He didn’t want to close it, but he wanted to keep the tradition alive. I think we’ve done that plus more,” Gomez said. “They’ll all come and visit us, and they’ll eat here. That’s one of the most beautiful things.”
Waka Dog Cafe
● What: Restaurant with hot dogs, Mexican food, smash burgers and more
● Where: 1809 South Bend Ave., South Bend
● Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; closed Sundays and Mondays
● Price: $4-$14
● For more information: Call 574-347-4438 or visit its Facebook page.
If you know of a restaurant that should be featured in an upcoming Taste column, email Tribune staff writer for Taste Jessica Velez at jvelez@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Cultural cuisine and camaraderie intersect at Waka Dog Cafe
Reporting by Jessica Velez, South Bend Tribune / South Bend Tribune
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
