NEW HAVEN, Conn. — As mother nature continues to heat things up, those who work under warmer conditions in Connecticut know exactly how to cool down.
That includes Robert Sweeney Sr. and his brother Ed Sweeney, who own and operate the longest-running food truck on Long Wharf Drive in New Haven: Sweeney’s Hot Dog King.
Robert Sweeney Sr. began selling hot dogs out of the food truck nearly 65 years ago, when minimum wage was 75 cents per hour.
“And that wasn’t going to cut it. So, I started this hot dog business, so I could work 10, 12, 14 hours to make enough money to survive,” Robert Sweeney Sr. said.
Though the Sweeney brothers are by the water, many times, it’s no match for the summer heat.
“In the summertime, July and August, you fry like a french fry,” Robert Sweeney Sr. said.
But in his six decades in the business, the 83-year-old Hot Dog King has picked up a few tricks along the way to stay cool.
“The sun’s radius throws off tremendous heat. But the cardboard blocks the sun and you get the breeze in between,” Robert Sweeney Sr. said. “Back in the old days, you had no fans. You had no heaters. Today, you got heat in the truck so you can camp out. You got fans, so you can work around things.”
It’s a must to keep up with loyal customers, who visit his truck from all over.
“It’s mind over matter. We have no mind, so it doesn’t matter. So, we’re okay with this,” Robert Sweeney Sr. said with a smile.
While workers outside do their best to keep cool, so do those inside. That includes those at Executive Cleaners in Milford, who rely on things like fans and spot air conditioning to beat the heat.
The spot air conditioning was installed in the building 20 years ago, since something like central air wouldn’t work for the business.
“It is a little bit hard to cool down the building because we have two boilers that produce steam to operate the machines. So, it’s counterproductive to have an air conditioning that cools down the building when on the other hand, we’re trying to create steam,” said owner Clementina Yazdani, who has run the business with her husband for more than two decades.
The spot air conditioning runs through tubes that come down from the ceiling near the machines to keep the workers that would be most susceptible to the heat, cool. It’s a system Yazdani said most other cleaners in Connecticut don’t have. She said it serves many purposes.
“One, and most importantly, is our employees. You definitely don’t want your employees to pass out from heat. And it makes your production much faster because they’re cool and not hot and tired. And the second thing is, could you imagine sweating over your customer’s clothes? You definitely don’t want that,” Yazdani said “So we want to do it for the benefit of our employees, and the benefit of our customers.”
In the summer months and during the heat wave, the machines are only run in the early morning, so the workers don’t have to use them during the hottest parts of the day in the afternoon.
As for the other employees near the front of the shop, since they’re not directly under air conditioning for most of the day, Yazdani puts lots of fans around the building and brings in cool summer liquids and treats.
“We do iced teas and we do popsicles, and even the ones in the back, iced coffees, so we do a run like almost every day. We try to take care of our employees as best as we can,” Yazdani said.
Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jleblanc@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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