Prepare your bun puns, the Wienermobile returns to Las Vegas
To be frank, it’s been far too long since a 27-foot hotdog-themed vehicle has rolled into town. So we relish the opportunity to tell you that the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is traveling around our valley this weekend.
“We’ll have free wiener whistles for people of all ages,” driver Niener Wiener (perhaps not her given name) promises of all of its stops. “People are welcome to get their photo outside the vehicle and ask us any questions that they’d like. We love to meat, m-e-a-t, frank fans of all kinds, and answer all their trivia questions for them.”
She and her partner, Tommy Salami (again, perhaps not the name on his birth certificate), also are stocked up on “hand sanitizer, masks, Lysol Wipes, and everything else to make sure that we’re sanitizing anything people are touching.”
The Wienermobile spent Friday morning at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with a bright green Lamborghini, a red Porsche and a yellow McLarren pulling condiment duty as automotive relish, ketchup and mustard. The Review-Journal caught up with it Friday afternoon at the Steamie Weenie in Henderson, where owner Bob Remington called hosting the iconic vehicle a “bucket list moment.”
“A guy calls you up and says he wants to put a giant hotdog in front of your place — why would I not want to do that?” Remington asked, laughing.
Seventy-year-old Marty Batton, who learned of the appearance on social media, was excited to get his whistle, noting it wasn’t his first.
“I used to get these when I was 10 years old in California,” he said, before unwrapping it and trying it out.
If you missed the team on Friday, you can ketchup with them on Saturday from 7 to 10 a.m. at Cars and Coffee, 6405 Ensworth Street, or between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at Atomic Motors, 704 W. Sunset Road, where you also can get a free hotdog. The final local stop will be on Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m, at Discovery Children’s Museum, 360 Promenade Place.
Those who haven’t grown tired of the bun-related puns also may want to look into a career in mobile meat marketing. The Wienermobile folks are looking for recent college graduates to cruise America’s highways in their hotdog for a year.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Wiener. “It is the best way to see the country from the windshield of a 27-foot-long American icon. It is the absolute coolest thing you can do your first year out of college.”
If you think you can cut the mustard, apply online at oscarmayer.com/wienermobile before January 31.
Contact Al Mancini at amancini@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlManciniVegas on Twitter and Instagram.