Art of Business: Holy Dog

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Chino of Middletown's Holy Dog doesn't have a lot of time to worry about his small restaurant's Internet presence. "I put my effort into the food, but customers put stuff online for me," he says. "They supplement my nonexistent tech skills." And they gobble up his all-beef, preservative-free Hatfield hot dogs, Italian sausages, and kielbasa with outside-the-box toppings like glazed apples, aioli sauce, and brie and cortija cheeses. "We've neglected the national food for too long," says Chino, whose former restaurant was in Williamsburg. "Everyone has the right to a good hot dog! There should be amazing hot dogs on every corner!" Not every customer realizes that Chino (real name: Jaime Palacios) is a Chilean who was born in China and raised in Mexico—or that his visual art has earned him a place in the canon of contemporary Latin American masters. Here, it's all about the dogs. "I think you should be able to create wonderful things," he says, "with things anyone can have access to."