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Summa Becvar Analysis

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On fall days like these, Jeanne Summa-Becvar used to wait for the kids to get off school so they could ride their bikes to her family’s hot dog truck in Brentwood. Her father, the namesake of Charlie’s Hot Dogs, and mother were there; the smell of the Sabretts steaming and the onion sauce that made the family famous warmed the neighborhood. Now, on almost every Saturday since June, she’s at the Islip Farmers Market selling those famous onions in 16-ounce jars to community members they brought together for 43 years.

The Charlie’s faithful come steadily, and the memories still bowl over Summa-Becvar, who closed the truck in 2006. One Saturday, a teacher remembers how he used to reward his kids for good grades with the promise of hot dogs. A few weeks later, within two hours, it’s a man whose father took him to Charlie’s as a boy, a woman who craved the franks during her pregnancy, and a father whose son cried out for a Charlie’s T-shirt as a keepsake after moving to New Orleans. The memories so enchant Summa-Becvar that her two daughters, the third generation of the family raised on the truck, tease her about her familiar trance at the farmers market.

“I …show more content…

(Grace’s had the East End; Charlie’s swaddled the Brentwood/Islip area.) Maybe the hot dogs, steamed in bouillon, and the onions, bathed in a slightly sweet, generously spiced sauce, brought customers in. But they came back for Charlie and his wife Rose, the faces of the business. If Rose saw a group of kids having the hot dogs, she’d always hand them a bag of chips, too. Charlie used to flirt with customers endearingly. “Why, don’t you look beauuuutiful today.” An uncountable number of families made a tradition of Charlie’s, including the former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, who started going at age 5 and brought the Food Network there for an episode on players’ favorite

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