It’s National Hot Dog Day - but NOT Dogs as we know it!

This week marks National Hot Dog Day in the US - a day to celebrate the old-fashioned dog in a bun… but our new fast food is making waves in the UK with our 'Meaty Dogs Without the Meat' - a hot dog (or Not Dog should we say) that’s so tasty you wouldn’t miss the meat.

To celebrate National Not Dog day you can devour the Plain Jane for free all day on Sunday 23rd July.

Dubbed 'The New Fast Food'; meat free alternatives of our favourite dirty food are gaining momentum across the world - just look at Lord of the Fries in Australia, and the success of Beyond Meat in the US - Not Dogs joins these innovative companies serving up classic fast food menus with a meat-free twist.

With a unique and exciting menu we created Not Dogs and travelled the UK festival scene for two years before opening the first fast-casual restaurant in the iconic Bullring in Birmingham just before Christmas 2016.

Items that fast sell-out include The Original Frank, a Not Dog topped with Heinz Ketchup, French’s Mustard, American Cheese Sauce and our signature recipe of beer-fried onions, The Plain Jane and Kickin’ Katie Nacho Dog (named after the founders) and their newest item The Queen B Burger made with Not Dogs’ Secret Sauce - a burger so juicy meat-eating customers are opting for this over the fast-food alternatives on the market.

This year we want to rename this day to Not Dogs Day! Whether you eat meat, trying to reduce the amount of meat you eat, or are veggie or vegan, Not Dogs is a place that whatever your diet preferences everyone can enjoy the fun and excitement of the Not Dogs menu together!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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It’s #SausageSelfie Time!

We’re reigniting our #SausageSelfie competition in July so tag in your #SausageSelfie across Twitter or Instagram for the chance to win… your sides for free all of July! That’s right every time you visit us you’ll receive your sides completely free!

We know not all of our fans can make it to Birmingham (watch this space for new locations) so are very happy to see your past #SausageSelfie pictures (we’d love to see old festival ones!) or take a new one at Not Dogs Birmingham!

The winner will be announced at the beginning of August ready for them to enjoy free sides on-the-house!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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Jamaican-Me-Crazy Not Dog Recipe

This lively Not Dog with jalapeños, crispy lettuce, mango mayonnaise and jerk sauce, will awaken your taste buds and bring a touch of the Jamaican sunshine to your BBQ! 

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 Quorn Hot Dogs

4 hot dog buns

Sliced pickled green jalapeños

4 Iceberg lettuce leaves, shredded

Mango Mayonnaise:

1/2 ripe mango, flesh finely chopped

1/2 lime, juice and zest

75g mayonnaise

Jerk Sauce*:

2 spring onions, chopped

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

1/4 white onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

1 scotch bonnet chilli, deseeded if you’d like less heat!

Pinch dried thyme

1/2 lime, juice

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp ground allspice

Pinch of salt

* There’s some great pre-made jerk sauces available if you don’t fancy making the sauce at home, but, it’ll be worth it!

Method

1. Put the mayonnaise, chopped mango and lime juice and zest in a bowl. Mix together vigorously and put in the fridge to chill
2. Pop all the ingredients for the jerk sauce in a food processor and blend into a paste, adding cold water a tablespoon at a time to create the desired consistency. Put to the side while you prepare the hot dogs
3. Cook the Quorn Hot Dogs as per the packet instructions. Meanwhile, get all your prepared ingredients (jalapeños, lettuce, mango mayo and jerk sauce) ready for topping
4. Once the Hot Dogs are cooked, put one into each bun. Now it’s time to assemble your Not Dogs... 

• First, spoon on the jerk sauce, covering each Hot Dog evenly
• Sprinkle on the lettuce on each
• Next, put on the mango mayonnaise (if you have a plastic squeezy bottle use that!)
• Finally, top each Not Dog with 4 slices of jalapeño 

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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Every Dog has its… BIRTHDAY!!

Saturday 17th June marks the six month birthday of the first Not Dogs restaurant in Birmingham and, not only that but June is a very special month for Katie & Jane too!

Three years ago we travelled all of five minutes down the road in our little purple zig-zagged truck to a local craft fair to launch Not Dogs to the world, or should we say to the lovely few people of Middleton in Tamworth who watched us almost career into a small stream, taking out a few bushes on the way as we parked up for the first time!

We remember that day as though it really was yesterday and here are a few memories that make us smile…

• We panicked because the lovely purple and orange aprons (that you see our crew members wearing today!) hadn’t arrived in time so we had to wear a black one each from Booker and we just did not feel the part!

• It took us the best part of three hours to serve our first Not Dog as we got ‘used’ to the new equipment (the trial run on Jane’s drive at home had not gone so well the day before)

• We thought we could fit everything in the dolls house size under counter fridge before quickly realising that was impossible!

• The eye-catching orange and purple food wrap we designed had not arrived in time, so we had to use napkins instead… with every dog we watched go out ‘topped perfectly’ we were telling everyone ‘next time you’ll see them in the wrap we created!’

• We soon realised that we had five festivals ahead of us with no storage and we certainly needed to get faster at cooking the Not Dogs! Every Dog has its… BIRTHDAY!!

Since that day we’ve made more mistakes, learnt a lot from those mistakes, had to let go and relax a little but overall we just kept going!

So here we are today! Six months to the day we opened our first fast-casual restaurant, and in that time we’ve welcomed 12 fantastic crew members on board, topped thousands of Not Dogs, launched our first Burger - The Queen B named in honour of the amazing women in our lives and of course, taken so many Sausage Selfies we are struggling to fit them all on Instagram!

Opening a restaurant for the first time is indescribable - but we could not have got this far without our crew and the support from our friends and family, and most importantly our Not Dogs fans who have supported us from when we were a little food truck to today, visiting us time and time again and telling others to give us a try - thank you so much!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs.

Katie & Jane x

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Ooh Sauce-y! Why we love Heinz & French’s

What would our Not Dogs menu be without the addition of tomato ketchup & tangy mustard?!

Katie & Jane always knew that having grown up on ‘tomato sauce’ there was absolutely no substitute for us and our Not Dogs fans – nothing else quite touches the legend that is Heinz Tomato Ketchup, a staple in everyone’s food cupboard and the saucy sweetness that you’ll find in The Original Frank, Breakfast Muffin and our perfect Plain Jane.

But what about its partner in crime? Nothing but French’s quite cuts the mustard for us! Tangy sauciness that you’ll find in The Original Frank, Plain Jane, and any concoction Kickin’ Katie can create for herself.

We simply love these sauces & how they look creatively zig-zagged and swirled all over our menu items! 

We hope to ‘ketchup’ with all soon at Not Dogs Birmingham!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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Club Not Dogs

Club Not Dogs is a very special collection of Not Dogs fans who want to join us in changing the world one Not Dog at a time through delicious meat-free food that’s better for you, animals and the environment!

All you need to do is enter your email address at: https://www.notdogs.co.uk/club (completely free of course!) and each month, we’ll send you updates, exciting news and exclusive insights. Plus, with every newsletter you’ll get an exclusive offer that only members of the Club can get! Think free toppings and hot drinks and even % off your whole order.

What’s not to love? Head over to the website now - we can’t wait to have you join us!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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Not Dogs’ Sausage Selfie Competition!

Our March #SausageSelfie winner was this lovely lady! 'Veggie heaven' awaits her with breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert on the house!

Never fear, we run this competition all year ‘round and our April competition has just launched! All you need to do is tag your Not Dogs posts with the hashtag #SausageSelfie to be in with the chance of winning…

a mini Not Dogs party! You and three friends can pick a Not Dog to enjoy each totally on the house! 

We know not all of our fans can make it to the Birmingham store so if you’ve visited our little purple food truck or seen us at events around the country - you can share them too to be in with the chance of winning our competition!

Good luck everyone!

Eat. Sleep. Not Dogs

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T&Cs: http://blog.notdogs.com/2017/02/not-dogs-sausageselfie-competition.html