Zalman’s: Healthy (or almost healthy) hot dogs in Jerusalem

Many Israelis still regard hot dogs as a cheap food that combines whatever is left over from the cow, and hesitate to eat them. All I can say is they are missing out.

By LINDA GRADSTEIN NOVEMBER 25, 2024 21:49

Zalman’s (photo credit: ASAF KERALA)

If you’re thinking of going to one of Zalman’s 12 locations, there are only two words you need to know: “corn dog.” Trust me on this one. Although I had tasted Zalman’s hot dogs several times, I had never had the corn dog before this visit.

“Be careful, it’s addicting,” the 79-year-old founder of the hot dog empire said with a smile.

Well, he was right. The coating is crunchy and a little sweet, and the hot dog, which is half the size of the regular hot dog, is delicious. You can choose from a series of sauces, although I liked it with just mustard. The order is for one (NIS 16) or two (NIS 30) corn dogs. Order two and save yourself some time.

The challenge, Zalman said, was finding a way to make the batter without using milk, which is how it is usually made. He first experimented with almond milk but decided the corn dog was fine without it, and he was right.

Now the story of Zalman’s before we get to the rest of the menu. Moshe Zalman Olive and his wife, Miriam Golda, made aliyah in 2011. A Chabadnik, he had come to retire, study Torah, and live closer to some of his 19 (!!) grandchildren. But he couldn’t find a hot dog he enjoyed eating.

Zalman’s (credit: ASAF KERALA)

In the US, he had run a scrap metal recycling business in Chicago for 40 years. He had no restaurant experience at all. But that didn’t stop Zalman, who perfected a recipe for an all-beef hot dog with significantly fewer nitrates and preservatives. That is how the empire began. Somewhere along the way, he also got smicha (rabbinic ordination). The Zalman’s branch in Chicago is nitrate-free, he said.

The locations are run as franchises, but the franchisee buys the products from Zalman’s and gives it a share of the profits. He says they require franchisees to spend at least eight hours a day in the branch they are running so that it is basically a full-time job.

Zalman has some wonderful stories, such as the one where he went into Gaza in December to feed soldiers. He and his crew prepared food for hundreds of soldiers who were coming out of Gaza, but some of them got delayed. So Zalman, along with some soldiers, drove a pickup truck full of hot dogs into Gaza. Zalman is an emotional man, and he teared up a little as he told the story.

“So, we get there, and all these soldiers were so happy to see us. They draped an Israeli flag on the tank and lifted me up onto the tank. It was a moment I will never forget.”

He also loves giving his patrons little surprises.

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“If I see a lady sitting at a table with a hot dog but no chips, I’ll bring her chips on the house,” he said. “It makes me so happy to give people free food.”

Zalman, dressed in his trademark bright yellow sweatshirt and baseball cap, met me at the branch in the food court in Malha. His most profitable branch is in Romema because it is one of the few branches that has an Eda Haredit Badatz hechsher, even though all the products served at all the restaurants are identical. He told me to invite my family, so two of my young adult kids and my favorite husband joined us.

Ironically perhaps, Zalman rarely eats his own products, having started a “health journey” five years ago. It sounds like about as much fun as my own “weight loss journey.” I did catch him sneaking a piece of our schnitzel and a few chips, but I’m not one to tell on people.

Hot dogs on the menu at Zalman’s

THERE ARE several hot dogs on the menu, each at NIS 33, which can be customized to order. I liked the All Beef hot dog, and my husband enjoyed the All Beef Spicy, which is only mildly spicy. The Chorizos Spicy was too hot for my Ashkenazi palate. There is also a chicken hot dog I didn’t try. The hot dogs taste like beef and don’t have a processed taste, which many of the cheaper Israeli hot dogs seem to have.

The chips were hot and fresh and also addicting but were made from frozen chips, which is the norm in most restaurants.

His bestseller, Zalman said, is not the hot dogs but the toasted sandwiches. Many Israelis still regard hot dogs as a cheap food that combines whatever is left over from the cow, and hesitate to eat them. All I can say is they are missing out.

There is even a food truck in Lod I’d like to check out. The Zalman’s branch in downtown Jerusalem is open very late on Saturday nights, until 1 or even 2 a.m., Zalman said, and is packed with American seminary and yeshiva students. That’s one way for young people to meet!

• Zalman’s
• Food court, Malha Mall
• Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Kashrut: Rabbanut Mehadrin

The writer was a guest of the restaurant.