40 Years Of AJ’s Texas Hots

Jamestown Post Journal:

Although no one can answer why they’re called ”Texas Hots,” in forty years, no one has seemed to care.

The hot dog legend all began in 1936, when John Colera opened the second hot dog shop in Jamestown, in the Humphrey Hotel in Brooklyn Square. When the Urban Renewal Project planned to reconstruct the area in 1970, Colera and other business owners were forced to move.

From there, Sam Colera, son of Johnny Colera, opened A.J.’s Texas Hots on Foote Avenue complete with the first drive-thru in Chautauqua County. The drive-thru idea originated when he visited a Jack-In-The-Box in Canada. He then had a friend hook up a speaker for his new restaurant.

”Probably 75 percent of our business is take-outs,” said Colera, ”With a place like this where you don’t have a lot of seating, you can take care of more people and you can cut down on your employees.”

A.J.’s has had a pretty simple menu since it opened. ”Basically just hot dogs and hamburgers, french fries, ham and cheese sandwiches, milkshakes and soft drinks,” said Colera, though chicken sandwiches, fish sandwiches, battered vegetables, onion rings, coffee and tea have been added to the menu as well.

He aims to keep a simple menu so people always know what to expect. ”When people are on a 30-minute lunch, they want to be in and out in five minutes,” he said. Read on.

Photo: Ashlea Browning.