Elijah Campos began working part-time at Frank Restaurant in 2011. At the time his dad was a line cook at the hot dogs-and-cold beer joint.

“I started as a late-night cook and slowly made my way from meat line to manager,” Campos said. “Now they’ve put me in charge.”

As head chef Campos oversees an adventurous kitchen that turns out an antelope, rabbit and pork sausage called the Jackalope. It also serves a Grilled Cheese Waffle Sammy for brunch.

There’s also the Notorious P.I.G., one of Frank’s best sellers, which pairs a bacon, jalapeno and sage sausage with mac and cheese and barbecue sauce.

“Sometimes you hit a wall with ideas, but I’ve got a lot of talent around me,” Campos said of his fellow chefs, some of whom come from fine-dining backgrounds. “They always bring in fresh ideas.”

Since opening in 2009, Frank has tweaked its offerings by debuting weekly specials and upgrading its bar menu to better complement the food.

Although the restaurant used to make all of its sausages in-house, demand outgrew the kitchen’s capacity. Frank partnered with Hudson Meats, a local business on South Congress Avenue, to produce its custom links.

In 2015 owners Daniel and Jen Northcutt, along with partners Geoff Peveto and Christian Helps, expanded Frank Restaurant with the opening of a second location in San Antonio.

Early this year Frank took over operations at Scholz Biergarten, located at 1607 San Jacinto Blvd., Austin. Scholz is the oldest continually operated biergarten in the U.S.

And in June, Frank moved into a counter-service space in Urban Outfitters’ Space 24 Twenty off the Drag.

Despite the many restaurants serving beer and sausages around Austin, Frank has tried to set itself apart.

“[We] create [our] own little niche with the atmosphere”—the high-ceilinged downtown space looks small from the street but opens into a modern wooden cathedral—“and the style of food that we do,” Campos said.

“We try to go a little bit outside of the box.”

Frank Restaurant
407 Colorado St., Austin
512-494-6916
www.hotdogscoldbeer.com
Hours: Mon.-Thu. 11 a.m.-midnight, Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m.-2 a.m., Sun. 10 a.m.-midnight