Editor's note: This article previously misspelled Owner Kristen Hooper's last name. The article has been updated. 

Gourmet hot dogs and street tacos is a combination Top Dog Tacos has been dishing out in downtown McKinney since 2016.

Owner Kristen Hooper said she got the idea to sell the uncommon pairing after a family trip to Florida where she saw several shops that offered uniquely paired street food options.

“I just came back and thought, ‘We can do that, and we can probably do it just a little bit better,’” Hooper said. “Top Dog just kind of came about as a quick-serve option in downtown McKinney because there weren’t really that many places to go.”

Hooper, a culinary school graduate from the Art Institute, said her skill set allows her to make unscaled street food.

“I was classically trained, which you wouldn’t think I would end up doing tacos and hot dogs, but you can make everything elevated,” she said.

Top Dog Tacos’ menu features everything from classic hot dogs made with Kobe beef to hot dogs topped with nachos, bacon and blue cheese or elote and tacos filled with shrimp, fish, lobster, fried avocado and fried green tomatoes.

“We just take in influences from pop culture and things that are trending,” Hooper said. “We change our menu a lot, and we like to name our recipes after friends or customers so they feel like they are part of it.”

For example, the Texas Tail Pipe Dog was named after Top Dog’s first customer, and both of Hooper’s children have tacos on the kids’ menu named after them­—The Bubba and The Sissy.

“I think our food is definitely unique,” Hooper said. “We do some really fun specials, for example we [did] a Smokey and The Bandit hot dog for Burt Reynolds passing.”

At Top Dog Tacos everything is made in-house and prepared from scratch each morning, Hooper said, including the restaurant’s popular garlic sauce.

“It’s a recipe that I picked up from a restaurant in our home town that closed,” Hooper said. “Top Dog kind of started around that recipe, and when I got that sauce I really wanted to be able to utilize it. We put it on almost everything.”

In addition to Top Dog’s unique menu items Hooper said the restaurant’s staff prides themselves on being able to cater to any customers’ request.

“If we can make it for you, we will,” she said. “Vegan request, vegetarian options, we’ll do anything. We are a ‘yes’ place for sure.”

The restaurant is covered in pictures of pop-culture influences that Hooper said she grew up listening to and watching. Hooper said she describes the restaurant as a small, cozy, retro hole in the wall.

“We just try to stay fun and a little eclectic and a little weird, but people seem to love it,” Hooper said.