We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Colin Miles a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Colin, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Miles came by his passion for hot dogs and other specialty meats while attending culinary school in the early 2000s. “I excelled in sausage-making, charcuterie, and butchering,” he says. As his career progressed with stints at such acclaimed Atlanta destinations as Pura Vida, Leon’s Full Service, and Heirloom Market BBQ, his interest in crafting his own meats grew.

“At one point, I got tired of buying charcuterie from distributors and started doing it myself. I got into making different sausages and salamis, trying to use as few ingredients and as little processing as possible,” he says.

“Eventually, it got to the point where I really wanted to explore that facet of the business more and more—and I was tired of making money for other people,” he continues with a laugh. “And I realized it was time for me to go off and do my own thing.”

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Since 2016, Fripper’s Meats + Goods, the Atlanta-based specialty meat company, has developed a reputation for supplying high-quality meat products including bologna, pepperoni, cheddarwurst, and bratwurst to dozens of restaurants, brewpubs, markets, and sports venues. But if there’s one thing owner Colin Miles wants his company to become known for, it is the redemption of that uniquely American staple, the hot dog.

“Fripper’s was founded on the concept of elevating nostalgic meats by using minimal ingredients and old-school techniques,” Miles says. “And no meat evokes nostalgia more than the hot dog. It’s a part of Americana. Baseball, hot dogs, and beer—that’s America. Although it was originally an immigrant food, it’s something that every American knows. Most people today think of the hot dog as just a cheap tube of processed parts, but our goal is to bring it back to its position of prominence.”

Miles came by his passion for hot dogs and other specialty meats while attending culinary school in the early 2000s. “I excelled in the areas of sausage-making, charcuterie, and butchering,” he says. As his career progressed with stints at such acclaimed Atlanta destinations as Pura Vida, Leon’s Full Service, and Heirloom Market BBQ, his interest in crafting his own meats grew.

“At one point, I got tired of buying charcuterie from distributors and started to do it all myself, and I got into making different sausages and salamis, trying to use as few ingredients and as little processing as possible,” he says.

“Eventually, it got to the point where I really wanted to explore that facet of the business more and more—and I was tired of making money for other people,” he continues with a laugh. “And I realized it was time for me to go off and do my own thing.”

As he began formulating the plan for what would become Fripper’s, he determined that hot dogs were the hardest sausage to make. So on his off-days, Miles spent eight to 10 hours working on creating a better version of the hot dog.

In the company’s early days, Miles would often pack up his car with hundreds of pounds of his artfully crafted hot dogs and other meats, supplying customers in markets like Charleston, Nashville, and Richmond. “We started everything with our own money,” he says. “I think we started with $5,000, maybe $6,000, and we operated like that for nearly seven years.”
From those humble beginnings, Fripper’s has grown over the last seven years, placing its products in such well-known Atlanta locations as the Argosy, the Independent, Red’s Beer Garden, Savi Provisions, State Farm Arena, and Mercedes-Benz Stadium—and in other sports venues like the Footprint Center in Phoenix.

“We’re doing business in three corners of the country—the Southeast, Southwest, and Northeast,” he says. And, having recently partnered with the hospitality investment and development company Full Course, “we’re poised to grow even more.”
Miles attributes Fripper’s success in no small part to its relationship with its clients. “We’re doing anything and everything we can to make our customers happy. If you’re a supporter and put us on your menu, you’re part of our family. It’s not just about us. I want to generate millions of dollars in business for everyone we do business with.”

But at the end of the day, “it’s our product,” he says. “Our meats speak for themselves. We use grass-fed beef, minimal ingredients, and minimal processing. And people taste the difference. Our meats have texture, they’ve got personality. Our pepperoni has flavor and balance—it’s not just salty, greasy, fatty pork. We’re making better, flavorful versions of things that have been made the wrong way for so long.”

And that includes, of course, the once-lowly hot dog. “The hamburger gets all the attention these days, and hamburgers are great,” Miles says. “But the hot dog should be right up there next to it in the consumer’s mind. If you can put a hamburger on a brunch menu, why not a hot dog with eggs on top of it?”

“I meet people all the time, kids and adults, who say they don’t like hot dogs—until they try ours, and then they’re converts,” he continues. “We’re winning them over, one hot dog at a time. We’re taking this lowbrow sausage and making it not so lowbrow anymore.”

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

In the company’s early days, I would make a few hundred pounds of hot dogs each month and travel around doing pop-ups in Atlanta, Charleston, Nashville, and Richmond. These pop-ups were the starting point and helped to develop what the business would become. After a couple of years of pop-ups, the company moved into wholesale/food service distribution, delivering and shipping our products in Atlanta and other cities across the country. We started everything with our own money; I think it was $5,000, maybe $6,000, and we operated like that for nearly seven years.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Since 2016, Fripper’s has developed a reputation for supplying high-quality meat products including hot dogs, bologna, pepperoni, cheddarwurst, and bratwurst to a growing list of restaurants, brewpubs, markets, butcher shops, and sports venues. But if there’s one thing I want Fripper’s to become known for, it is the redemption of lowbrow sausages that all Americans know.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.frippers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fripperssausages/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fripperssausage
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-miles-90b56214a/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/fripperssausage

Image Credits
Photos courtesy Fripper’s