One Dog to Rule Them All

We do things a little different at Tony Packo’s, and you’ll notice it when you order a Packo’s Original Hot Dog. Unlike traditional franks on a bun, our hot dog is made with Hungarian Kolbasz sausage and is served sliced in half. It’s an experience that you won’t soon forget!

How the World-Famous Hungarian Hot Dog Got its Start

You might be wondering why in the world a hot dog is cut in half! Here is how it all got started. Tony Packo and his wife, Rose, started their sandwich and ice cream shop back in 1932 at the beginning of the Great Depression. Times were tough for everyone, but people still needed places to enjoy authentic, delicious food. The Packo’s were on to something when they opened up shop.

Tony created a signature sandwich – sausage with sauce served on rye. To enhance its flavor, he added a spicy chili sauce. But this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill served at a cookout hot dog. Tony opted to use Kolbasz, a Hungarian sausage, as the type of meat for the hot dogs he served. Since these sausages were so large, he decided to cut them in half. The size was comparable to an American hot dog, and Tony was able to sell it for 5 cents, which was an incredible deal during that time.

Tony’s Hungarian roots paired with his American upbringing bred what is now famously known as the Hungarian Hot Dog.

Packo’s Famous Bun Signings

Burt Reynolds may not have realized it at the time, but when he signed a hot dog bun at Tony Packo’s back in 1972, he started a sensation that would live on for generations. Today, the tradition continues with foam replicas of the original buns. Presidents, actors, musicians, and even astronauts have all taken part in this unique custom. Packo restaurants are now celebrated for their Bun Wall of Fame, and the tradition shows no signs of slowing down. Who knows who will be next to leave their mark on this unique piece of Americana?

The Greatest Hungarian Hot Dogs Mentioned on M*A*S*H

The words from Jamie Farr's mouth on Feb. 24, 1976, would put Tony Packo's in the spotlight. Farr, a native Toledoan himself, appeared in the television show "M*A*S*H," playing Corporal Max Klinger, a crazy medical corpsman from Toledo. In the episode that made Packo's future, a man playing a television newsman talked to Klinger about his hometown. 

Farr wrote a little local color into his reply. The lines read, "If you're ever in Toledo, Ohio, on the Hungarian side of town, Tony Packo's got the greatest Hungarian hot dogs. Thirty-five cents..." 

Thus a new epoch began. The name appealed to the scriptwriters, who wrote Packo's into five subsequent episodes. In one show, the mobile hospital unit asked Packo's to send sausage casings to be used in a blood-filtering machine. Packo's was also mentioned in the two-and-a-half-hour final episode in 1983. Photos of the M*A*S*H cast and their signed buns have been hanging out in the Original Tony Packo's restaurant for years on display.