HOT DOGS & DELI LUNCHES DOWNTOWN
Footers starts with a steamed hot dog and goes in several directions: avocado, chili, sauerkraut, a Louisiana hot link or Portuguese linguica. Behind the numbered menu is a downtown story about a founder’s Bay Area inspiration, a daughter who grew up in the business and a storefront that has stayed part of Main Street for decades.
Updated 2026.
The downtown location
Main Street Footers is at 425 E. Main Street. Its posted hours are Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; closed Sunday. Call 209-667-8383. It is a daytime lunch and early-evening stop, rather than a late-night restaurant.
The shop offers indoor and outdoor seating and describes itself as dog-friendly. Its scale is part of the experience: a compact storefront with tables outside, right among the downtown businesses. Use our Main Street guide to connect lunch with the surrounding shops and public places.
How to read the menu
The official menu divides its numbered items into old-fashioned steamed wieners, other sausages, subs, salads and extras. These three dogs give a quick sense of its range:
- Main Street Footer, #1: the mustard-and-relish starting point, with onion and tomato.
- Avocado Footer, #5: sliced avocado, Thousand Island dressing, vegetables and Jack and cheddar.
- Yeti Warrior, #17: chili, secret sauce, Savoy slaw and jalapeños—a more heavily dressed option.
Sandwiches include hot pastrami, Reuben, tuna, teriyaki chicken and tri-tip. Subs come with a choice of house-made potato, macaroni or pasta salad. There is a vegetarian garden burger and a children’s menu that includes a turkey hot dog, corn dog, pretzel and peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
The drinks have their own following. Footers calls the ice in its fountain drinks “flaky”; the Journal’s March 2025 column singles it out alongside a chili-cheese dog. Root beer floats, shakes and smoothies are also on the current menu.
A Bay Area idea brought to Main Street
Founder Dennis Rodgers developed Footers in the early 1980s after visiting Bay Area hot-dog shops. A 2015 profile in 209 Magazine identifies Caspers Famous Hot Dogs as an influence: Rodgers saw how the food was presented and brought the idea to Turlock.
The next chapter depended on people already connected to the business. Rodgers’s daughter, Lisa Wilson, had worked there since she was sixteen and was running the shop when he decided to sell. Glenn Newsum, a friend Rodgers had met years earlier through Kiwanis, discussed the purchase with Wilson. They bought Footers together in August 1997.
The magazine’s interview with employee Molly Amant found that the chicken taco salad and Reuben were popular alongside the hot dogs. It also recorded a distinctly local experiment: an employee tried Dust Bowl’s peanut-butter-and-jelly burger and suggested a Footer version. The resulting 2015 menu item combined a hot dog with grape jelly, peanut butter, bacon and cheese.
When a hot dog became a hometown tribute
Footers made regional news during Colin Kaepernick’s rise with the 49ers. In its coverage ahead of Super Bowl XLVII in 2013, ABC30 visited the shop and reported on the Kaepernick Special. Amant had helped develop the tribute; the same story mentioned Olde Tyme’s football-themed cookies.
The name later disappeared from the menu. A 2016 Journal column confirms its removal while arguing that coverage of Turlock’s response to Kaepernick’s protest had oversimplified the town.
The chalkboard changed; the lunch trade carried on
Another change was quieter. In March 2025, Journal writers Kristina Hacker and Joe Cortez noted that Footers’ familiar, multicolored chalkboard menu had been replaced by a rotating electronic display. Longtime customers may remember the slate above the counter; newer customers meet the digital version.
During a 2012 discussion of the local business climate, Wilson told the Journal that lunch traffic had held up through the recession and that Footers was still attracting new customers.
Ordering for the office—or stopping in
Footers advertises delivery through Grubhub and DoorDash, plus direct local delivery for phone or fax orders Monday–Friday, 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m., with a delivery fee. Those delivery hours are narrower than the shop’s opening hours. The menu page is the direct starting point for an order.
For another downtown place with a long local history, explore Latif’s. Our Turlock Guide and Shopping & Dining directory have more ideas for the rest of the visit.
