You might expect to find the popular Texas Hot eatery in Dallas or Lubbock. But it's actually in Wellsville in western New York near the Pennsylvania line.
Many have been able to find Texas Hot in the once-thriving and now somewhat-depressed town because of its famous sauce used to smother its hot dogs. It's right downtown on the main drag.
That sauce has a remarkable taste - tangy but not greasy. The family keeps the recipe a close secret.
One local said he once gave a ride to a relative of the restaurant owners, who confided the prized recipe to him. He wrote it on a scrap of paper, and his wife mixed it up. It was the real thing. But that scrap of paper soon disappeared - to the couple's chagrin. The secret is still safe.
The Rigas family helped found Texas Hot in 1921. And it hasn't changed much since. There are still miniature juke boxes at each narrow booth. And hat racks at the end of each.
The family has been much in the news lately, and not so favorably. John Rigas was a Wellsville resident, who got away from the restaurant business after having the idea to bring cable TV to the Wellsville area in the early 1950s. He enlisted his brother, Gus Rigas, to help him go out in a pickup truck to string cable. But the double shift was too much for Gus, who went back to the friendly confines of Texas Hot.
John Rigas went on to make a pile of money. After his Adelphia Communications Corporation went public, he became under scrutiny and was eventually charged with bank, wire and securities fraud.
John Rigas, now past 80, got a 15-year sentence. His son, Timothy, was given 20 years.
The family members who chose to stay at Texas Hot came out better in the end after all.