In 2005, Jason Gaines saw a hot dog cart inside a Home Depot, and something clicked. He used a cash advance from his Discover card to buy one of his own. He didn't know the hot dog business. Didn't know what a Chicago-style dog was. He figured out the logistics to get a cart inside a Home Depot location, took someone else's idea, and made it his own.

He learned by doing. Listened to customers. Asked regulars what they wanted. Over the next few years, Dirty Dogz expanded to five Home Depot locations across the St. Louis area. In 2017, he opened a brick-and-mortar restaurant at Monticello Plaza in O'Fallon.

In Jason's own words

"I didn't go to school for business. I asked questions and listened to people with experience — successes and failures. The failures were sometimes better advice than the successes."

Every small business has a glossy "about us." This isn't that. Jason told VoyageSTL Magazine the unvarnished version in 2026 — and we think it's worth reading.

Things were great. Then COVID came.

When the shutdown hit, Home Depot closed all the Dirty Dogz cart locations. The restaurant pivoted hard to takeout — and our customers showed up for us in a big way. During the "shutdown," Jason made a call: he reopened the dining room. He wasn't supposed to. He did it anyway. The restaurant was packed.

Seems during COVID people became entitled, lazy and stupid. I used those words because it's so true. — Jason Gaines, VoyageSTL Magazine, 2026

The harder story came after. Around 2022, habits had shifted. DoorDash and Uber Eats took off. Finding quality staff became nearly impossible. Jason closed the remaining Home Depot carts because he couldn't staff them with people willing to work a four-hour shift. The same problem hit the restaurant. Kay — Jason's wife, a nurse — quit her job and came on full-time. Major pay cut for the family.

By 2024, the restaurant was struggling. Jason was working 80–90 hours a week. Kay was too. Then a good friend in Texas gave him a food trailer. After some cleaning and new equipment, the food truck business was born — and it changed everything. With minimal overhead, the trailer let Dirty Dogz go to the customer: private events, businesses, festivals, wherever the people were.

In early 2025, Jason reopened the Brentwood Home Depot cart. The restaurant pulled back to four days a week — Wednesday through Sunday — because that's what the quality of available staff could support. Not ideal. But honest.

Today, Dirty Dogz runs on a limited but quality crew: Jason, Kay, two daughters in the business, and a handful of staff who show up and actually work. One restaurant, four days a week. One Home Depot cart. One food trailer on the road. No bullshit.

I love my job. I love our customers. I hope we're around for a long time. — Jason Gaines, VoyageSTL Magazine

Jason pilots hot air balloons. It's not a metaphor — it's an actual business he runs on the side called St. Louis Ballooning Adventures. He travels to competitions, runs charter flights, and races when the weather cooperates.

It's a very Jason thing to do: one business on the ground feeding people, another one floating thousands of feet in the air. Somehow they both involve showing people a good time.

Probably the only dual hot air balloon pilot and hot dog vendor in the city. — Josh Bacott, Riverfront Times