Pretzel Logic
Mellow Milton relishes his big chance.
The city’s most famous hot dog vendor is in a particularly fine mood as he picks an all-beefer off the grill, places it in a bun and shoves it up the line.
“This is good, really good for the city,” says a downright jovial Milton Street, spearing another sizzling wiener bound for the hungry maw of one of the thousands gathering at UPenn’s Hill Field to see Bill Clinton on Tuesday.
The good news, says Street, former state senator, ex-traffic court official, ex-con, past parking scofflaw and older brother of City Council President John Street, is not merely the opportunity to hawk red-hots.
Even if he is one of only two vendors chosen by the city to service the huge, captive, lunchtime crowd, made up largely of junk-food craving college kids who either have to bear the slings and arrows of outrageous food odors, or pony up $2 for one of Milton Street’s hot dogs or pretzels.
Or $3 for a hamburger fired up on grills belonging to Larry Cohen, Egypt club owner, friend and fundraiser for Clinton and Ed Rendell and owner of KISS food service, the only other food vendor given access to the Clinton crowd.
The real good news, says Street — who has mellowed considerably since May 1, 1991, when he performed unauthorized dental surgery on a traffic court official with his fist — is that Bill Clinton’s visit is a much-needed morale boost and an historic chance for children to see a president.
“It’s good to see so many people out here. We’re all in deep shit if Bob Dole wins.”
The balding man in the blue suit is far less enthusiastic about the hot dog business than Milton Street when he learns the price of the dogs.
“Stuff it,” says the man, who turns around and walks away in disgust, much to the delight of one of Milton’s minions.
A group of pre-teens wield the red and grey invitations printed by the Clinton/Gore campaign. The invitations that tell the bearers that the “Event will include Entertainment and Refreshments” (italics theirs).
Not surprisingly, the kids — and many others — expect to be handed a free hot dog or pretzel.
But such largesse was not to be, much to the chagrin of the youngsters.
“$2,” says the man with the tongs. “Everything here is $2, except for the drinks. Those are a dollar.”
Like the man in the blue suit, the kids walk away with a bad taste in their mouths, even though they hadn’t ingested any of Milton’s death rods.
“Man, I thought this stuff was free,” says one.
“Why’d they say the event will include refreshments?” asks another, learning an early and unfortunate lesson about politics American-style.
There really is no such thing as a free lunch.
But there is such a thing as a profitable lunch.
If you know the right people.
Milton Street, the man once fired from his $30,000-a-year traffic court job for failing to pay $2,000 in parking tickets, is one of those people.
Bill Clinton’s advance staff wanted Milton on the scene. Because the mayor wanted Milton on the scene.
“Last week, we had a meeting with the president’s advance staff,” says KISS Foods special events coordinator Mark Attison. “Rendell was kind enough to choose us to run the food and the president’s advance staff asked for Milton, at the mayor’s request.”
Attison says that it is not entirely a coincidence that Cohen’s firm got the nod.
“He is a very good friend of both the mayor and the president and raises a lot of money for them,” he says. “But we also do a lot of special events in this city. We know what we are doing. Otherwise, they wouldn’t call us.”
Street, says Attison, did not get the good news until Sunday afternoon, after several rounds of phone tag. Street says that after Attison’s call, he ran around like crazy trying to get the crew and equipment and food together in time.
In between placing dogs on buns, Milton Street says he is grateful for the opportunity; though a little dubious at first about the profit potential of a gig that could be more of a headache than it’s worth.
“It’s a crapshoot,” he says. “I have no idea how much we will make, so we didn’t bring that much food with us. And, because of the security, we can’t bring anything else in. The Secret Service had to go through all the boxes and containers and make sure there weren’t any bombs or such.”
Milton Street is more than happy to talk about the financial risks involved with the president’s visit. He is, however, more reserved about whether Clinton’s trip to Philadelphia, particularly West Philly, was in response to a letter written by his brother chiding the campaign for taking black voters for granted.
Milton Street says he doesn’t have any particular insight into Clinton’s rationale for visiting Philly. He says he barely has any insight into why his brother wrote the letter.
“John and I haven’t discussed this issue,” he says. “But if John is concerned about the issue, then he has a good reason, because John doesn’t do anything without a good reason.”
That the U.S. president’s trip was a response to the City Council president’s letter is not hard to believe, considering:
A) the timing of the trip;
B) the location (even though Clinton’s speech focused mostly on education and made repeated references to being on UPenn’s campus);
C) the all-black list of non-pol special guests that included Rodney Peete, his wife Holly Robinson, Grover Washington Jr., Patti LaBelle and Boyz II Men;
D) and the fact that, of the three congressmen invited to share the podium with Clinton, only Chaka Fattah got to speak.
All that aside, Milton Street says that Clinton’s visit really would make a difference, because it reminds Philadelphians that they are important. And that they do need to get out to the polls if the want to ensure that Clinton is re-elected and that Newt Gingrich replaces Braves manager Bobby Cox as the biggest choke artist in Georgia since Robert E. Lee.
Besides, he adds, “I’m just happy to be here. This is a lot of fun.”
And profitable, to boot.
“We’re doing OK,” he shouts a little bit later. “You can tell very early on if you are going to have a good day. We are having a good day.”
Chalk up another victory for Philadelphia’s most famous hot dog vendor.
