We’re sad to report that beloved LES spot Los Perros Locos will be no more. Run by Florida native Alex Mitow, the restaurant was the scene of countless late night drunk munchies for our NYC staff — a place where you could chow down on Colombian- style hot dogs (which basically means smothered in toppings that expertly merge sweet and salty, crunchy and creamy) with minimal impact on your wallet. In the short time it was open, Los Perros Locos made a splash; its catering turned up everywhere from radical fashion line Marimacho’s Fashion week event to retail pop-ups in the Bowery Hotel, to the food-meets-nightlife pop-up series Mitow orchestrated in an empty LES diner.
photo credit: Itzel Martinez
Unfortunately, the costs of operating a retail storefront became impractical, Mitow explains in a Facebook post, saying:
I thought about starting this post with a phrase like “It is with a heavy heart…” or “Whenever one door closes…” but all of that felt too trite and unlike me at all. Thus I’ll begin instead with some Greek mythology:
Like the Hydra from the tale of Heracles, when you cut off one of my heads two more spring forth in its place. I regret to inform all of you esteemed friends and family that this will be the final week of Los Perros Locos as we all have come to know it. Running a retail storefront in the Lower East Side is, simply put, no longer financially and creatively viable for me. Back to those lovely cliches and mythos, though! The storefront space at 201 Allen will undergo a rapid transformation to become the LESpace <working title>, a raw incubator space for pop-ups, chefs, artists, and other creative outlets. LPL will live on as Los Perros Locos ¡MÒVIL!, slinging Colombian hot dogs at fairs, concerts, art shows, and events all over NYC. We are also going to work on more permanent locations inside of captive retail/malls/food courts, rather than direct street retail.
You’ll also see more of me in the form of my events, parties, and co-branding projects, so stay tuned! This has been a VERY difficult decision for me to make but in the end this is best for me and the brand, so that we can continue on unencumbered by the day-to-day stressful uphill battle of running a high-cost, low-margin business.
Last but not least I can’t even begin to express my thanks to all of you who have come out and supported me and the restaurant over these past couple years. From the first few hot dogs we made on a camping trip in North Florida to our anniversary party (yeah, the one with the little person!) to any number of wacky events and late night drunken meals that so, so many of you have enjoyed at LPL, a huge THANK YOU to every last one of you. It means more than you can imagine. To wit: we’ll be having a closing party for all friends and family to come hang out and kill a keg of beer with us on Saturday August 30th from 9PM onward till the end of the night and have a last hot dog or three with us. I’ll be DJing and it’ll be a good time as usual as the disco ball spins and the hot dogs grill and the beers chill. Hope to see you all there!
Sorry for the long post and thanks for the support!
Alex
From the sound of it, we can expect more exciting things to come from Mitow in the space where Los Perros Locos made a home, and we’ll still be able to satisfy our perros cravings with LPL Móvil. In the meantime, stop by the store on Sunday to say goodbye, dance, and get that last sweet, drunken meal in.