The longstanding tradition of Sunday sauce is rooted in family: a designated time of the week where a slow-cooked pot of flavors brings the entire family to the dinner table. But for Julie Camardo, CEO of Zweigle’s (preference: white hot), Sunday sauce meant driving to all the local “hots” places with her family.
“We’d hop in our old station wagon and go to Nick Tahou’s, Bill Gray’s, Tom Wahl’s or Schaller’s,” said Camardo, “That was my Sunday.”
For as long as Camardo can remember, the Zweigle’s building at 651 N. Plymouth Ave. is where she spent school breaks and summer recess — from sorting mail, photocopying and part-time data entry in her high school days to eventually joining the packaging department while in college.
The company was founded in 1880 by Camardo’s great, great-grandparents Josephine and C. Wilhelm Zweigle. It was originally located at the corner of Joseph Avenue and Kelly Street until, under the leadership of her grandfather Robert H. Berl, the company was forced to relocate to its current home due to urban renewal.
“Being in the city was really important to my grandfather,” said Camardo. “He had workers that lived in the city of Rochester, and part of (that decision) was because of the reliable, good, strong people that had worked for us for years.”
Berl’s considerations paid off with employees like Theresa “Terry” Haller (preference: white hot) who just entered year 42 with the company, spanning three generations of Zweigle. It was Haller who ran the packaging line — dubbed “Terry’s line” — Camardo worked on during college. But, what keeps someone around for over four decades?
“A lot of my family members have worked here — brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews and friends of theirs, so it’s been a family thing,” said Haller.
Enduring 146 years of operation and two unprecedented pandemics (Spanish flu and COVID-19) is no easy feat, but the ebb and flow of the hot dog contains multitudes. In the best of times, it can represent the entrance of better weather and the impending festival season. In the worst of times, it is a reliable, affordable meal.
“Hot dogs fall in all the categories — we are celebrated during good times,” said Camardo. “[However for] those that are struggling, six or eight hot dogs in a package can feed a whole family versus a pound of steak, right?”
The affiliation of hot dogs with the change in season is not coincidental. There is a seasonal nature to the product — Camardo said 70% of production takes place from May to August. This coincides with festivals, outdoor grilling and, of course, baseball. According to Dan Mason, general manager of the Rochester Red Wings (preference: white hot with meat sauce), approximately 151,000 Zweigle’s dogs were sold last season.
“Zweigle’s is just a long homerun away from our ballpark,” said Mason. “You can’t buy a fresher dog in all of baseball.” (CITY statcast: while the Salhen Packing Co. in Buffalo has been declared the closest hot dog manufacturer to a baseball stadium at ~2 miles driving distance and .95 miles geographically, Zweigle’s sits a mere .8 mile drive and .6 miles geographically from ESL Ballpark.)
But the connection between Zweigle’s and the Red Wings goes beyond close distances. The white hot — a staple offering in the age-old question “red or white?” — was created specifically for the Rochester Tribe (the precursor to the Red Wings) by the Zweigle brothers, Leonard and Bill, in 1925; further cementing the company’s roots in the fibers of a city that still makes up the bulk of their sales. (Beyond that, a partnership with another Rochester pillar, Wegmans, has expanded their reach to the likes of New York City, Boston, Virginia and North Carolina.)
As a local symbol with a reach beyond state lines, it’s hard to believe Zweigle’s is still a small, family owned company consisting of fewer than 60 employees.
“From start to finish, to make a hot dog from raw meat — grinding it, stuffing it, cooking it, chilling it, packaging it — we do it all here,” said Mark Pacana, quality and sanitation manager (preference: white hot with mustard). “We can do that in under four hours.”
The level of efficiency is a focus for Camardo as manufacturing industries navigate the challenges of rising raw material costs and attracting labor. Zweigle’s has invested in both ergonomics and semi-automatic machines in the packaging areas.
“It’s not always about replacing people, it’s about trying to become more efficient,” said Camardo. “It’s very challenging to get people who really want to work and care in a cold, wet environment. How do you find those people? It’s not always easy. So you have to automate.”
That automation can only go so far for Zweigles due to the nature (or, for them, the natural casing) of the business. Handling the natural casings requires a human touch to ensure uniformity — a ceiling even Germany, arguably the mecca of traditional sausage casing manufacturing, has long since reached.
“There is an art to tying and hanging them,” said Camardo.
So where does a company approaching a century-and-a-half in business go from here? Aside from maintaining the level and quality of their reputation, the future of Zweigle’s is about leaning into their history.
“We want people to appreciate the authenticity, the uniqueness of where something is made, where they’re from originally,” said Camardo. “There is something amazing about that.” Zweigles.com
Roberto Felipe Lagares is CITY’s multimedia reporter and has an unruly amount of film cameras on his person at all times. You can follow him @bertoscamera.
