Lucky Dogs Owner Doug Talbot Passes Away at 77

Doug Talbot, the owner of iconic hot dog cart franchise Lucky Dogs has passed away due to "cancer complicated by Alzheimer's disease," David Lee Simmons reports. Talbot purchased the franchise in 1970 after running a slew of Orange Julius stands in the Quarter. When John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces was released in 1980 including the ever-absurd Paradise Vending weenie cart franchise closely resembling Lucky Dogs, Talbot did not read the Pulitzer Prize winning book, eventually telling the Times-Pic, "I was afraid I'd find myself in there." Today the hot dog shaped carts remain an important part of New Orleans' culinary lexicon.