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Show UP FOR DISCUSSION FOOD ANONYMOUS? NOT SO FAST BY STERLING GRAY 6- I T /It k*V0t.14 Q{3 k 13 PEu sAO SP SAUCE ON IT J DAWGS 858 N. 700 EAST, PROVO MON-SAT. 11A.M.-9 P.M. (801) 373-3294 BY FAITH HEATON PHOTOGRAPHY VIRGINIA JOHNSON The aroma that wafts through the halls at UVU every Wednesday at noon puts that of pathetic weenie roasts to shame. The best part is that it is local and cheap. That's right, it is none other than Provo's delicious J Dawgs. J Dawgs was founded in June 2004 by owner Jayson Edwards. Edwards was attending BYU and he found that he was left craving the good hot dogs he had enjoyed while serving as an LDS missionary in Toronto, Canada. "Jayson just realized that there weren't any good street vendors in Utah Valley," said Justin Stubbs, the J Dawgs store manager and longtime friend of Edwards. "Contrary to popular belief that J Dawgs was started as a school project, Jayson 8 I THE V MAGAZINE just wanted some good food and got the idea from his mission." Edwards was walking home from class one day in Provo, spotted an old shack and decided that it was perfect for his business. Thus, J Dawgs was born. "It exploded almost from day one," Stubbs said. "Jayson was running it by himself while he was going to school, but he just got way busy and ended up having to drop out. Then when he got married his wife ran it and he finished up school at BYU." With business booming, Edwards had to relocate to a larger building next door, but he kept the shack as a memorial of his beginnings and rents it out occasionally. J Dawgs now employs 15 workers, mostly college students, and he caters to different businesses. Edwards asked Stubbs to come help manage the Provo store in 2009 and plans to branch out and open a second store in Orem behind Noodles & Co. and Rumbi Island Grill. However, Edwards would like to keep the business small and local, at least for now. "We get a call every week with offers to start a franchise," Stubbs said. "We want to make sure the quality stays the same and great everywhere, and until we can guarantee that each store will be equal, we won't franchise." Because of the great flavor and amazing prices, J Dawgs is a hit with the younger crowd, which is exactly why they target Utah Valley colleges. Check them out at their location or UVU's Wolverine Wednesday. What would make a woman lean out of her car window and scream at a guy on a bicycle as she passes? I've been wondering about this ever since it happened to me several times over the summer. It still surprises me that it happened. I mean, Utah Valley is a pretty bike-friendly place. Bike lanes are common and traffic jams are not. Despite what people may say about Utah drivers (always forgetting that they are referring to themselves), I've noticed that drivers usually keep an eye out for bikers ; I've been saved more than once during moments of incaution by a cautious driver. But some people are idiots. One day I was cruising down University Avenue, going 25-30 mph, and a woman passenger screamed so loud as she passed by that I almost swerved directly into her car. If a man on a bicycle collides with a swiftly moving automobile, it means blood. My blood. I'm not excluded from this behavior, though. I don't try to endanger the lives of other people, but I've said plenty of bad words from behind my steering wheel, words that I would never, ever say otherwise. Would I ever say these types of things to people's faces? No. Would the passing screamer have endangered my life had she known me? Probably not. So why do we do it? Why do we curse at people from our car windows or flip them the bird? Why do we get on the Internet and say rude, disgusting, even threatening things that we would never say in any other social medium? In those examples, we aren't faced with the people who we are hurting, and I think that's a big part of the answer. But we can't forget that what we do affects those around us, whether we see them face to face or not. So please don't scream at me from your car, and I promise I'll try not to curse you from mine. |