By David Hagedorn |
June 27, 2021
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Chris Van Jura opened Catalyst Hot Dogs, a mobile stand, in December. Photo by Laura Chase de Formigny
Hot dawg
There is one reason more compelling than utter deliciousness to get a cast-iron grilled hot dog made with dry-aged Roseda Black Angus Farm beef from the mobile Catalyst Hot Dogs stand and that’s to hear its owner, Silver Spring resident Chris Van Jura, pronounce “hot dawwwg” in his native New Jersey accent.
Van Jura, 39, considers selling Jersey dogs his true calling. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater from Western Connecticut State University in 2005. After college, he worked at a deli in Lodi, New Jersey, for four years to support himself between auditions and acting gigs. “What I was doing there is what I do now—over-the-counter banter,” he says with a laugh. He went on to work for various restaurants, rising through the ranks to upper management. A job as a general manager for Fiola Mare in D.C. brought him to the area in 2017. When COVID hit, he had just started a new job at Via Sophia in D.C. He got furloughed twice.