The house that sausage built

Hotdogs are pretty much a part of every kid’s life. He finds it served in a bun, on a skewer or in his spaghetti. He has them for breakfast or merienda, sometimes after a tantrum, and, more often than not, at every children’s party around the block. A long time ago, kids even found them coated with fried batter. This treat was oddly called a corn dog.

Restaurateur Dino Guingona has taken hotdogs… well, sausages, and is now serving them in a variety of ways to surprise even the hungriest tot in the lot.

"Kids love our product," Guingona says of his Holland Sausage. "We’ve had such a positive response that in the past year, we opened as many outlets as possible in so many spaces as silently as possible."

Holland Sausage offers sausages served in just about any possible way. Guingona says that sausages can be fried, boiled, broiled, poached, served in a bun, with pasta or with rice. They also have sausages served as pizza topping and their popular skewered sausage sandwich.

"We also have sausage versions of a number of popular dishes. We have bastardized the traditional sisig. Instead of using pig’s head, we use our own ingredients," he declares.

"There are a lot of other cooking methods and dishes that we haven’t explored yet," he adds. "We haven’t done Middle Eastern, African and some Asian methods of cooking. Fusing sausages with Asian cuisine can result in so many ways of serving sausages."

A number of the sausage items are innovative concoctions. The HS Aligue Pasta is a rich serving of spaghetti with aligue sauce, topped with sausages. The HS Baked Potato is a filling pica-pica of baby potatoes, boiled and stir-fried with sausages, and served with a melted cheese and sour cream sauce. Those who want a more filling meal can choose from the Grand Slam Breakfast Sampler, which is served with two eggs, java rice and three sausages, or the Hungry Hunter, which has two eggs, baby back ribs, three sausages on a skewer and java rice. With a glass of Nestea iced tea, everything goes down swimmingly.

Aren’t they bothered by the bad rep meat products are getting nowadays? With many diners opting to go light, how do they expect their sausages to fare?

"We’ve always considered sausages to be a fun food," Guingona says. "Our philosophy is that anything in moderation is fine. It’s okay to indulge in a sausage once in a while. But it’s definitely something people will enjoy."

True enough, all the sausages at Holland Sausage are imported from (where else) Holland.

"Our Dutch partner is in the retail business of flowers," Guingona declares. "You must have heard of it, Holland Tulips."

Holland Sausage has six kinds of sausages in stock: smoked, which is a house specialty; special; cheese; paprika; chicken turkey; and the regular hotdog. They are shipped frozen from Holland; in its frozen state, sausages have an indefinite shelf life.

Unlike burgers and fried chicken, the market for sausages isn’t saturated yet. However, people still think of them as just another hotdog stand.

"We’re working hard in trying to remove the public’s impression that we are just a hotdog stand. We think we offer quality yet inexpensive food," he adds.

Although sausages are a niche market, Guingona is quick to admit that their products are not exactly fastfood fare.

"We’ve taken hotdogs a step higher than most hotdog stands. Outlets, like Smokey’s, have taken the cart down to a science. However, we envision Holland Sausage to evolve into a full dine-in outlet," he explains.

Their outlet at Rockwell Center is the prototype of how future stand-alone Holland Sausage branches will look like. While the restaurant can only sit 16, this outlet serves a patio that can sit so much more. On a warm night, those relaxing before going out to party might grab a sandwich or a sausage platter from them and a drink or a cup of java from the nearby coffee place. Since the place is open until 2 a.m. on weekends, it is not surprising that a number of party people drop by for a snack before going home.

By October, Holland Sausage will be opening its biggest dine-in restaurant at the ABS-CBN headquarters in Quezon City.

This month, Holland Sausage will be introducing its chicken line to provide patrons with more choices

Holland Sausage has six branches in Metro Manila. The Rockwell Center outlet is its first free-standing dine-in restaurant. Other outlets are at Robinsons Place, Manila and at the food courts of the Landmark and Glorietta in Makati City, SM Megamall and Edsa Shangri-La Plaza in Mandaluyong City.