- Jimmy's Hot Dogs has been in the 25th Street Shopping Center since 1991
- Its staple is a hot dog "with everything" — chopped onions, yellow mustard and a pickle spear
- The original partners' roots go back to Jim's Doggie Stand at Union Square in Phillipsburg
PALMER TWP., Pa. - Jimmy’s Hot Dogs, an Easton-area institution whose roots go back more than 100 years, is for sale.
Owners Frank and Polyxeni Bounoutas are looking for a buyer to take over the business that regularly has a line out the door in the 25th Street Shopping Center in Palmer.
“We want to sell it to the right person – someone who will run it and take care of it like we did,” Polyxeni Bounoutas said, without disclosing an asking price.
The family has been associated with Jimmy’s since Frank Bounoutas decades ago – then a young immigrant from Greece – began working at the original Jim’s Doggie Stand at Union Square in Phillipsburg.
Jim's owner Jimmy Makris started out in 1908 with a pushcart in Easton, then opened a stand two years later on the other side of the free bridge in Phillipsburg. From there it grew to iconic status with an unwavering recipe – a Jimmy’s hot dog “with everything” came with chopped onions, yellow mustard and a dill pickle spear.
Oldtimers told stories of soldiers returning home from World War II stopping at Jim’s before they went home to their families.
Polyxeni Bounoutas said Frank is in his mid-80s and the couple have considered retirement for some time now. Their three adult children have successful professional careers of their own.
While their legions of loyal customers have enabled them to provide for their family and become one of the Easton-area’s cultural pillars, Polyxeni simply said, “It’s time.”
“It’s too much now,” she said from behind the counter of the no-frills shopping center storefront off Route 22 that has served as Jimmy’s home since 1991.
The Bounoutases are working without a real estate agent and have spoken with potential investors, Polyxeni said. The sale would include the name, equipment, lease, mortgage and recipe secrets that go into making their signature – and singular – product.
Jimmy’s operates out of a space that’s less than 800 square feet and has no tables, booths, credit card scanners or any other entrees on the menu, other than the thousands upon thousands of hot dogs they wrap and bag annually.
“Our customers have been very good to us. We won’t sell to just anybody.”Polyxeni Bounoutas, co-owner
Frank Bounoutas and the late John Apostolopoulos partnered over 30 years ago and opened in the 25th Street Shopping Center in 1991. Both had worked for Makris, who died in 1983, and ran Jimmy’s in Palmer Township together until 2016.
While the business prospered and continued to attract steady crowds, the partners engaged in a nearly decade-long dispute over ownership. As the partnership soured, a public auction was held in March 2016 to settle the matter. Frank Bounoutas won the bidding at $330,000 to outlast his 25-year partner and a few others.
Jimmy’s survived that and the shutdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Polyxeni Bounoutas said it couldn’t escape time.
She said the owners hope to cut a deal soon but they plan to remain open in the meantime — and be picky about the possible next generation of proprietorship.
“Our customers have been very good to us,” she said. “We won’t sell to just anybody.”
