Journal Square’s 1937 Hot Dog Window to Close Nov. 30

For the better part of a century, the yellow-and-orange window across from the Journal Square PATH station has handed commuters a hot dog for often less than $2. On November 30, Boulevard Drinks will serve its last franks from that spot. But the Jersey City institution, which has been in business since 1937, says it is not going away for good.

Owner Victor Victoratos told NJ.com that the stand plans to reopen early next year, about 500 square feet inside the Journal Square Transportation Center, just across the street, according to Jersey Digs. Victoratos has signed his side of the lease and is waiting on the Port Authority to sign theirs, he told PIX11. He expects to open in February or March, NJ.com reports. In the meantime, he suggested a Boulevard Drinks hot dog truck could serve Journal Square while the stand is dark. At the transit hub, the stand will join a row of tenants that includes Jollibee and Taco Bell.

The move follows a months-long fight over the original storefront. This spring, Victoratos told NJ.com that he held a lease through 2034, but the landlord ordered him out by the end of May. The lease, signed with the previous owner, did not survive the building sale. He kept the window open into the summer while his lawyers fought the eviction, per Hoboken Girl. In May, Mayor James Solomon and Councilman Tom Zuppa pledged to keep the business in the neighborhood, Hoboken Girl reported.

The site is slated for a very different future. The original location sits on land for a mixed-use redevelopment that the Jersey City Planning Board approved earlier this year, Jersey Digs reports. Developer Nasser Freres plans a 55-story tower at 2859–2873 Kennedy Boulevard with 840 apartments, 84 of them affordable, and a ground-floor Whole Foods.

What will change hands is a walk-up window; what the stand sells has barely changed. The menu is a straightforward run of hot dogs, cheese dogs, chili dogs and sausages, plus fruit punch, piña coladas and other drinks at throwback prices. Former Eater critic Robert Sietsema, writing on his Substack, called it a must-stop. “No visit to this part of Jersey City is complete without one of the franks served at this venerable hot dog window, right across the street from the PATH station,” he wrote. His order: mustard and “chili,” which he describes as an oniony Greek meat relish.

For New Yorkers who cross the Hudson on the PATH, the closing is a reminder of how quickly the corners around a transit hub can turn over once a development gets approved. For now, the window stays open through the end of November. After that, the franks move across the street, pending the Port Authority’s signature.