Dog House, Charcoal Pit founder Louis Sloan dies at 86
Louis Sloan wasn’t a tall man – Robin Sloan Densten said her energetic, tennis-loving father stood about 5-foot-2 – but he and his family were towering figures in the Delaware restaurant industry, and they created an enduring legacy.
Sloan and his three brothers, Sam, Marty and Aaron, founded two of the state’s most iconic and popular casual eateries, The Dog House Sandwich Shop in Wilmington Manor and The Charcoal Pit on U.S. 202, an eatery favored by Vice President Joe Biden.
The two landmark businesses, now under different owners, are still operating after more than six decades.
The 86-year-old Rehoboth Beach resident, the youngest and last of the surviving Sloan siblings, died Aug. 27. A celebration of life will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, at Maris Grove Cardinal Clubhouse, 200 Maris Grove Way in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.
At the height of their success, the Sloan brothers owned about 15 food establishments, including two Charcoal Pit locations; two Dog House sandwich shops; three Pappy’s pizza restaurants; a chain of roast beef sandwich restaurants known as Beefy’s; a higher-end hot dog restaurant called Swanky Frank; and a Dunkin’ Donuts.
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Lou Sloan, a Wilmington native, learned his strong work ethic at an early age. His father Harry Sloan, a former Wilmington city councilman, died when he was just 4. His eldest brother Sam, a World War II photographer 15 years his senior, became his mentor and hero. Sam, injured during his war service, was told he would never walk again; he proved skeptics wrong.
The Sloan brothers, who made a pact to always stick together, later opened and operated the former Sloan’s Camera Center on Wilmington’s Ninth Street.
The brothers knew little about the restaurant industry when in about 1950 they decided to open their first food operation, an ice cream shop known as the Dairy Whip.
It lasted several years, but hot dogs turned out to be more profitable. In 1952, the Sloans opened The Dog House at 200 N. Dupont Highway. At that time, the four-lane highway where the Wilmington Manor eatery sits at Stahl Avenue was only two lanes with trees growing in the median.
After first visiting food businesses in a number of cities, the Sloan brothers decided to open a stand featuring foot-long hot dogs with all the trimmings. The concept was already a success in nearby Baltimore. The split, foot-long hot dogs, cooked on a flat-top grill, remain The Dog House’s signature dish. They eventually tore down the Dairy Whip to expand The Dog House.
For more than 60 years, customers have found refuge at the cash-only roadside eatery featuring a long, throwback counter that has remained in place since 1962. Employees have told The News Journal The Dog House has been known to sell up to 3,000 dogs a week to locals and travelers during its busy summer months.
“What kept us here was we were different,” Sloan told The News Journal in 2010. “We don’t compete with major chains. It’s very difficult to do that. We have our own little niche. We started something different. Everybody had hamburgers and that kind of stuff.”
Looking to capitalize on their Dog House success, in 1956, the Sloan brothers opened The Charcoal Pit, an archetypical American hamburger joint. It was modeled after The Dog House, and, initially, it had a long counter with a view of Concord Pike and about four tables.
But “The Pit,” as it’s known to longtime Delawareans, proved to be such a success, the brothers had to remodel three months after opening and add more tables.
The Sloan brothers and an ice cream manufacturer created “The Pit’s” tradition of serving ice cream sundaes that are named after local high schools and match the school colors. The eatery was so popular with high school students in the 1960s to late 1970s the brothers wouldn’t let students hang out in the parking lot unless they had a Charcoal Pit hamburger and a Coke in their hands.
Lou Sloan told The News Journal in 1986 that while The Dog House was the family’s original restaurant, his favorite was The Charcoal Pit.
“I’ve spend much of my adult life here. So it’s had a big effect on me,” he said. Lou Sloan was a stickler for fresh food, cleanliness, moderate prices and counseling young employees.
Sloan began selling the businesses off after his brothers died. He and brother Marty sold the flagship Charcoal Pit in 1986 to developer Louis J. Capano Jr. for an undisclosed price.
“It’s our time to let it go,” Lou Sloan told The News Journal.
Still, Sloan held onto The Dog House, which he called his “baby.”
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While he lived in Rehoboth with his wife, Peggy, he continued to commute to the Wilmington Manor hot dog eatery over the years as needed. “It keeps me young,” he told The News Journal. His daughter Robin Sloan Densten said he sold the business about three years ago to longtime employee Mitch Reinhart
Densten said her father was delighted when President Barack Obama visited The Charcoal Pit in 2014 for a cheeseburger, fries and milkshake. Obama told diners Vice President Biden had recommended the Delaware eatery. But Densten said what the public didn’t know was during Obama’s visit to The Charcoal Pit, Biden and his son Beau, longtime friends of the Sloan family, were lunching at The Dog House with little fanfare.
“It was exciting for him,” Densten said, though her father was very humble. “Dad never really retired. He was still emotionally attached to the businesses. He would still talk about the prices of the milkshakes.”
Lou Sloan is survived by his wife. Peggy; daughters, Donna Sloan Burick of Greensboro, North Carolina, and Robin Sloan Densten of Newark; stepson J. Mark Eldredge (Melisa) of Middletown; and five grandchildren, David and Jordan Sloan Burick, Mallory and Matthew Eldredge and Hannah Sloan Densten.
Contact Patricia Talorico at (302) 324-2861 orptalorico@delawareonline.com and on Twitter@pattytalorico