Mel's Hot Dogs
Mel's opened on July 3rd, 1973 at the corner of 42nd Street and Busch Boulevard, and it is still there. Mel was a Chicago musician who came to Florida with his rock band in the early 1970s, and the site tells the origin plainly: after a late night he found himself in Tampa 'craving the comfort food of his hometown: the Chicago-style hot dog,' noticed nobody in the city was selling one, and opened a stand. The Szabo family, described on the site as longtime customers spanning four generations, bought the business on September 6, 2023 and kept the recipe and the room the way they found them. Half a century in, the yellow building on Busch is the kind of place people bring their own kids back to.
- Address
- 4136 E Busch Blvd, Tampa, FL
- Phone
- (813) 985-8000
- Website
- melshotdogs.com
- Cuisine
- hot dogs, american
- Good to know
- Kid Friendly, Institution, Long Running, Family Owned
- Verification
- Details researched September 19, 2026. Hours and offerings change, so confirm with the venue before visiting.
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Good for
What people come here for, beyond what is on the menu.
Been to Mel's Hot Dogs lately? We found its website and hours, and nothing from this year that shows the doors are open. If you know, tell us.
Community submissions
No community submissions for Mel's Hot Dogs yet.
Discovery profile 8 of 10 readable
For whoever runs Mel's Hot Dogs. This is what a search engine or an AI assistant can currently read about the place. It is free, it is here whether the venue joins in or not, and it can be corrected any time.
- Street address on file: yes
- Neighborhood assigned: yes
- Phone number published: yes
- Website on file: yes
- Hours published: no Hours drive the most time-sensitive question in local search.
- Cuisine or specialty described: yes
- Photography on file: yes
- Website readable by crawlers: fail HTTP 403. The site is up but turned our crawler away. A site that blocks unfamiliar crawlers is usually blocking AI crawlers too.
- Served over HTTPS: pass
- Structured data present: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Declares a business type: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Page description written: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Menu linked from the homepage: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Hours published on site: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Address published on site: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Social profiles linked: unknown Could not read the site on this scan.
- Open to AI crawlers: pass No AI crawler is blocked in robots.txt.
Website checks last run October 11, 2026 against the venue's own site.
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