PALMER TWP., Pa. — Well hot dog, we have a weiner for best restaurant promotion of 2025.
One of the Lehigh Valley’s most beloved hot dog joints saw some of the heftiest foot traffic possible on New Year’s Eve.
Jimmy's Hot Dogs sold 1-cent hot dogs Wednesday — the promotional price was limited to two franks each.
“This is our way of giving back to the customer.”Jimmy's Hot Dogs co-owner Raj Muddu
Folks lined up at the 25th Street Shopping Center before the Jimmy’s crew even arrived in the morning, prepped to pick up their favorite fast food for an unheard-of cost — all in the name of customer appreciation.
Co-owner Raj Muddu said 2025 was a great year for Jimmy’s — both for business and customer loyalty — and “This is our way of giving back to the customer.”
Muddu, his wife Priya, and daughter Meena purchased Jimmy's in mid-2024 from Frank and Polyxeni “Polly” Bounoutas.
The business has been a fixture in the Lehigh Valley, operating at the 25th Street Shopping Center for nearly 35 years. Before that, it stood on the Phillipsburg side of the Easton-Phillipsburg free bridge for decades.
'A penny hot dog? Heck yeah!'
Standing in the line that stretched from Jimmy’s to the adjacent Petco entrance off 25th Street, Maura and Shane Ceglia said Jimmy’s has been a family fixture since their childhood.
“We've been going to Jimmy's Hot Dogs our entire lives,” Maura Ceglia said.
“I'm 20 and I've lived here for my entire life, so it’s part of my childhood.”
“And I'm 17, and we've always come to Jimmy's for like, years and years," Shane Ceglia said.
"And hey, a penny hot dog? Heck yeah!”
Kay and Thomas Whipple said they found out about the promotion from an unusual source.
“My son lives in Ireland; he’s been there 25 years,” Kay Whipple said. “But he keeps up with the Easton news, and he found out about it, and he sent us the information on WhatsApp."
“We've been going to Jimmy's Hot Dogs our entire lives.”Maura Ceglia, Jimmy's customer
For the Whipples, too, Jimmy’s is a longstanding family tradition.
“I brought my two boys, Thomas and John, when they were eight and seven," Thomas Whipple said. "I brought them to Jimmy’s on the Delaware, where they originally started.
"And I brought them up like this,” he said, imitating lifting up a child.
“I put them up there and they said to me, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Letting my kids see a hot dog stand!”
That was more than 40 years ago, the Whipples said, when a Jimmy’s dog cost less than a dollar.
Asked what he would have thought back then paying only a penny for the same product in 2025, Thomas Whipple laughed and responded, “Yeah, that’s what you call deflation.”
Waiting patiently in the cold
Despite the lengthy line, Raj Muddu said everything moved smoothly Wednesday, with just about all the customers keeping their cool and waiting patiently in the cold.
“It’s the most business we’ve ever seen, [but] it’s what we expected with the whole idea."Jimmy's Hot Dogs co-owner Raj Muddu
“It’s the most business we’ve ever seen, [but] it’s what we expected with the whole idea,” Muddu said.
Asked what he’ll end up doing with the mass of pennies he’ll inevitably collect throughout the day, Muddu knew exactly what he’ll do.
“Save them," he said. "We’ll keep them, because they’re going to be rare pretty soon.”
And what about next year? If business at Jimmy’s is as good as 2025, will penny dogs return?
“Absolutely!" Muddu said. "Why not?”
