There are certain smells that bring you to a time and place in Memphis almost instantaneously.
And one of the strongest, most nostalgic — and perhaps most welcoming — of Southern smells is that of a Pronto Pup hitting hot oil at the Mid-South Fair.
We all remember it. We all love it.
It arrives before you see the stand, sometimes even before you enter the front gates. Usually, you catch wind of it miles away, at whatever faraway location you’ve managed to find a parking spot.
It’s that warm, faintly sweet smell of batter and frying meat. And for generations of Memphians, it means one thing: School is back in session. The leaves are turning from green to orange. And it’s fair time.
Hello, fall.
8 decades of Pronto Pups
For the Andreini family, who owns and operates the iconic
Pronto Pup business, autumn means their busy season — and it has for an astounding 80 years.
According to its current owners — and siblings — Danny Andreini Jr. and Lisa Warren, the Pronto Pup has been part of the Mid-South Fair story since 1946.
That is when Danny and Lisa’s grandfather, Memphis barber Bemis Atkins, began selling his version of a hot dog dipped in batter and fried on a stick at the annual autumn event.
Eight decades later, the fair is now across the state line in Southaven, but the Pronto Pup remains one of the constants.
And now, the third generation of the family proudly carries on the Pronto Pup tradition — not just at the Mid-South Fair, but at a variety of big events around town.
“We’re in the middle of Tiger football season,” Andreini said from the Pronto Pup stand at the Mid-South Fair. “We do all the home games. We also got Mempho Music Festival coming up this weekend at the Memphis Botanic Garden.”
“And we just got finished with the Delta Fair,” Warren added. "And Cooper-Young Fest."
“We do all the Memphis in May events,” Andreini continued, reminiscing about their spring and summer. “BBQ fest music, RiverBeat. Also, Italian Fest..."
"Oh, and the FedEx St. Jude golf tournament," Warren slipped in.
That’s a packed schedule. So winter is their slow time?
“Not necessarily,” Warren quickly answered. “We also do the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.”
“People just think, you know, we do one thing,” Andreini added. “But we get asked to do a lot of private events... A lot of weddings.”
What’s the most surprising place they’ve ever been asked to be?
“We do quite a few ‘Celebrations of Life,’” Warren said delicately.
From barber shop to Pronto Pup
The Mid-South Fair has been at the Landers Center for 17 years, but Pronto Pups have been the Andreinis' family business for almost five times that long.
Andreini and Warren grew up around the family enterprise their whole lives. Their mother, Sharon, inherited it from her father, Bemis Atkins.
Before he invented his own Memphis version of the Pronto Pup, Atkins was already a well-known local businessman. As told by his proud grandchildren, he was a Memphis barber and beauty-shop owner in the 1940s and 1950s.
His business was at 966 S. Cooper, known as both Atkins Barber Shop and Atkins Beauty Shop.
This was the same salon that became associated withPriscilla Presley, who reportedly had her famous beehive hairstyle done there.
And today it is known for being one of the most popular Midtown hotspots: The Beauty Shop. When restaurateur Karen Carrier encountered the available-for-rent building, she immediately saw the potential for a restaurant.
The same hooded dryers, shampoo basins and glass-brick booths that Atkins used in his salon are the same ones that now populate one of Cooper-Young’s most signature eateries.
It was during his era at the salon where the ingenious — and budding — entrepreneur Atkins got the idea for his invention.
It was quite simple: a hot dog was put on a stick, dipped in batter and deep-fried.
Atkins' version became the Pronto Pup, which quickly became associated with Memphis fairs and festivals. What began as something of a side business grew enormously.
A family business in every sense
Atkins' daughter Sharon Andreini eventually took over the Pronto Pup operation. Her family continued selling them at the Mid-South Fair and traveling to other events for decades.
This had to be a dream for Sharon’s kids, Danny Jr. and Lisa right?
“We traveled around three generations in a mobile home to town fairs,” a now grown-up Andreini fondly remembered. “Like a travel trailer. We used to do Knoxville. Sedalia, Missouri.”
“There’d be a table in the mobile home so we’d play games,” Warren added. “We’d bunk in there. Like, it was a van. We didn't know any different. It was so much fun being on the road.”
As typically happens in these kinds of situations, the children who grew up in and around the business eventually became the owners of it.
Except this is not the kind of family business where the family simply owns the company. The family is the company.
And of course the Pronto Pup concession stand may look temporary. Like something assembled for a few days before being packed away. But the knowledge behind it isn't temporary at all.
There is a particular way to dip the dog. A particular way to pull it from the batter. A particular wrist movement that keeps the coating even. A particular temperature for the oil.
And, apparently, a recipe that is nobody else's business.
We didn’t even dare ask. We do know a few things, though: The batter is made of wheat and rice, with 38 secret ingredients. The hot dogs are made from pork and beef. And the oil is heated to exactly 350 degrees.
Mustard. Never ketchup.
We asked the professionals: What exactly is the best way to eat a Pronto Pup?
The only way. With mustard, of course.
What about ketchup? Andreini and Warren shook their heads in unison. No, sir.
“We don’t even provide ketchup packets,” Warren admitted.
“I remember an old Dirty Harry movie with Clint Eastwood where he said, ‘Nobody, I mean nobody, puts ketchup on a hot dog,'” Andreini recalled, laughing. (The movie was the 1983 crime thriller “Sudden Impact.”)
Andreini and Warren have maybe never served Clint Eastwood a Pronto Pup, but they’ve served plenty of other famous folks.
“I once sold one to Charles Barkley at a golf tournament at Stonebridge and several to Charlie Daniels over the years at music fest,” Andreini admitted.
“And there’s this moment,” Warren said, handing us her phone to show a vintage pic of former Memphis resident Johnny Cash eating a Pronto Pup with his wife, June Carter Cash. This was all the way back in 1968 at — where else? — the Mid-South Fair.
More than a fair food
But it’s not just celebrities who love Pronto Pups. Many Memphians seem to love to indulge.
“On a really good night, when the weather is great, we can sell 500 to 1,000,” Andreini said.
Weather can be a factor, like with the recent Delta Fair, which was held when the Mid-South was dealing with triple-digit temperatures. Unfortunately, excessive heat can dissuade potential fairgoers from attending. Rain and thunderstorms can also prove challenging, for obvious reasons.
And yet, through all the changes — and all the extreme Mid-South weather — the Pronto Pup keeps showing up.
What stays, what changes
Of course, Memphis has changed dramatically since Bemis Atkins first sold Pronto Pups at the Mid-South Fair.
Generations have grown up and moved away. Shopping habits, restaurants and food trends have definitely changed.
But in this one constant, the thing that seems to remain the same — and probably the reason behind its endurance — is the Pronto Pup.
That's the secret of a successful family business: knowing what to preserve and what you're allowed to reinvent.
The old recipe matters. The old method matters. The family stories matter.
But so does knowing how to run a concession business in a world that looks nothing like the one Bemis Atkins entered in 1946.
And so, this weekend, on a fall afternoon in Southaven, or at the Memphis Botanic Garden for the Mempho Music Festival, the fryer bubbles and another generation of children will discover something that their parents already know.
They take a Pronto Pup. They bite into it. And somewhere in that moment, two things happen at once. A new memory is made for a child. And an old one comes back for an adult.
That's what the Andreinis have been selling all these years.
Not just Pronto Pups.
Just don’t you dare ask for ketchup.
Brian Strickland is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. Contact him at brian.strickland@commercialappeal.com.
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This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: The story behind the Pronto Pup and its place in Memphis history
