Park City Mountain Resort’s terrain park just got a lot sicker.
The bottom of the park is now home to one of the fastest-growing brands in snowboarding: Cobra Dogs.
What makes the new contract with PCMR such big news is that it is the Cobra Dog brand not the company that is growing quickly. The company had only one location previously that was open only four or five months of the year.
Owner Cory Grove said Cobra Dogs began in a single hot dog truck at the base of Mt. Hood in Oregon six summers ago. Outside of summers at Mt. Hood, the only time the sausages, brats or veggie dogs with cream cheese, sauerkraut and special Cobra Sauce was available was at isolated snowboarding events scattered across the country.
Because Mt. Hood ski resorts handle their own food and beverages, the Cobra Dog truck is only welcome during summer training camps on the mountain’s glacier.
A resident of Portland, Oregon, he has declined to have stands anywhere not on snow.
“We have more food carts than any other city. We’re a huge food cart town,” he explained. “I could open two blocks from my house if I wanted to, but I want to stay near where snowboarding is. It’s where our niche is.”
Grove said he’s received numerous invitations to operate at ski resorts, but declined all of them until now.
What changed his mind was the PCMR terrain park’s reputation.
“The main reason we did it here is Jeremy Cooper is in charge,” he said. “And Shaun White trains here.”
It still took convincing from Cooper, but in the fall Cobra Dogs conceded to open the company’s first full-winter operation.
Grove still has catering commitments this winter, so the hot dog cart is a franchise. PCMR owns the business and has committed to buy from all the same suppliers and use the same menu. He is in town now making sure everything is done correctly.
The Oregon suppliers are what set Cobra Dogs apart, he explained.
“We buy from a great family-owned company. It’s quality meat and farm-raised,” he said.
Even the potato chips are sourced locally in Oregon.
Refusing to compromise on quality or location would be tough for a normal business. Because the stars of snowboarding have such brand loyalty to Cobra Dogs, Grove said, companies like Oakley and Red Bull sponsor his truck at catering events.
He is loyal to snowboarding, as well. Originally a videographer in the sport, Grove said he and a friend started Cobra Dogs as a way to pay for summer snowboarding.
Mt. Hood’s glacier is the only resort open in summer so people come from all over North America to train there, he said. That makes rent expensive and inspired the idea for a small business at the base of the resort.
A food lover, he and the friend developed Cobra Sauce by experimenting. It’s basically spicy mustard, he said. The idea of cream cheese on a hot dog came from a vendor in Seattle. It sounds strange but tastes great, he added.
Cobra Dogs
Bottom of PCMR’s terrain park
Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day through the season
www.pcride.com
twitter.com/cobradogs
View Cobra Dogs in a larger map