The teen’s today have goals that just hit different!
According to Because of Them We Can (BOTWC), Mason Wright is now Georgia’s youngest restaurant owner at age 14 thanks to his business, Mason’s Super Dogs — a carryout restaurant located in Stonecrest, Georgia.
The idea to become an entrepreneur first hit him at age nine after he did not want to depend on his allowance for money. Initially, he explored many business ventures which included washing cars, cutting grass, walking dogs, and selling snacks. Then he managed to convince his parents and grandparents to purchase him a hot dog cart.
Driving a hard bargain, Mason proposed he would bring home his report card every six weeks with straight A’s in return for the cart.
With his new cart, Mason was in business and entered a business competition at Morehouse College in 2018. Despite coming up short in the competition, a true visionary, the 14-year-old managed to convince President David Thomas to allow him to sell his hot dogs on campus.
His wish was granted, but under one familiar circumstance, Mason was to retain straight A’s in school.
“He said as long as I have straight A’s then I could sell hot dogs on-campus,” Mason told reporters. “I had a lot of good foot traffic from students at all of the colleges in the Atlanta University Center and that was really fun.”
Initially, he had the goal of turning his hot dog cart into a food truck but like many of us, the pandemic came through and put a halt to his plans.
As always, there’s a reason for everything. Thanks to the delays in receiving permits, business licensing, and health inspections, Mason came across a vacant property for lease and decided to use his own money to not only rent it but also fix it up with the support of his family.
In October 2020, Mason’s Super Dogs opened its doors for business and the rest is history! On opening day, Mason had lines formed all around the parking lot in support, much like what he saw in New York City, which served as inspiration for him to ask for the hot dog cart in the first place.
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The young restaurateur made history and now serves up 400 customized hot dogs which include vegan dogs and original masterpieces like the Firestorm — a chopped chicken dog with buffalo sauce. Mason’s Super Dogs also has Professor Dilly, which features a hot dog served inside of a jumbo pickle.
Outside of running a restaurant full-time, Mason begins his day at 7 a.m. to homeschool for three hours. He then dedicates one hour to prepping for the restaurant to open its doors at 11 a.m.
While he and another employee lead efforts in the kitchen, preparing the food, his sister, mother and aunt lend helping hands to operate sales and hand out food to the customers. Business hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On the other side of operations, Jerome Wright, Mason’s father handles all shipping efforts noting that he always knew his son would do something amazing.
“Mason’s Super Dogs is the one project he started and stayed with it,” said Wright. “Mason eats, sleeps, and lives that hot dog stand. That’s all he talks about. He makes sure everything is on point because his name is on this. [On opening day,] I told him chaos means he’s making money and doing something good. If he could get people to stand in line for an hour, that means something. I still can’t believe he pulled it off.”
In the future, Mason has plans to attend the place that helped him get his start, Morehouse College.
