About El Capitan's

HISTORY (updated 12/20/2011)

El Capitán's Brat, Sausage & Dog was founded in January of 2004 by myself (The Captain), Marc Ravaris.  I have operated it since my departure in 2001 from my prior long-time business, Mountian Sound Inc. 

I had just graduated from Western Washington University (winter 2003) with a BA in Spanish and a certificate to Teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL or more commonly known as ESL).  Graduating was one of many parts in my transition out of the aforementioned long time business.  Upon selling the business, I came to Bellingham to complete the Spanish degree which I began at Everett Community College. I had intended graduate and move to Seattle, travel to teach English, and import silver jewelry when I returned from my travels. 

During my last spring quarter (spring 2002) at Western, I decided out of the blue that I wanted to eat a hot dog one day.  I was astounded to find that no on-campus food establishment served a hot dog.  Concurrently, I had been thinking how much I was enjoying living in Bellingham, and decided that I wanted to live here (I had gone to school here from '79-'86 and had always thought that I would like to make Bellingham home).   However, living in a much smaller market, I realized it would be more difficult to get a job teaching or to sell imported silver.  I would have to make my living some other way, at least for a while.  Why not try starting a hot dog stand on campus?  To make a long story short, I applied to all the necessary powers that be and El Capitán's Brat, Sausage & Dog opened on Vendor's Row in front of the Viking Union Building, Western Washington University with two weeks remaining fall quarter 2002 (see "map" page for location). After seven very profitable years, business began to decline (along with so many others during our "Great Recession") and had becme unprofitable by 2009, when I closed it permanently.

El Capitán's Pirate's Den (Downtown Bellingham)

In the November of 2007, we were fortunate enough to find a unique location in downtown Bellingham.  I call it "The Pirates Den."  Located on Railroad Avenue in an old warehouse that is attached the Hohl Feed and Seed, we began opening a late-night eatery to cater to the nightclub crowd.  The stand usually opens Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Nights from 10:00 PM until 2:00 AM. Currently, it is our only fixed location. We also operate a mobile trailer for catering, festivals, and special events. See our "Catering" page for details and information on booking should you be planning an event where you would like us to sell our tasty dogs.

El Capitán's DOGS ON THE DOCK

Starting in the summer of 2006, I opened a rather unique summer location.  It was a floating hot dog stand, built on a workboat, located in the main part of Bellingham's Squalicum Harbor.   It has since closed due requirements by the Port of Bellingham.  There are still photos of this location on the "Photos" page. We may re-visit the idea of a floating hot dog stand in the future. 

The History of our Jolly Roger (Our Logo)

Our logo is a "Jolly Roger".  The term is derived from the French words "jolie rouge" or "pretty red."  As the story goes, French pirates had the custom of flying a red flag when going to rob another ship if they intended to give no quarter to their unforunate victims.  The custom of the red flag was adopted by the pirates of different nationalities  who plyed the waters of "The Spanish Main" (the Caribbean) during "The Golden Age" of piracy (1690-1730).  The words 'jolie rouge" became bastardized in English to the "Jolly Roger".  As the flag evolved, it changed from red to black, and began to display the various death effigies.  Each pirate would have a unique "Jolly Roger" so that the poor, unfortunate victims would know who thier attackers were.  The "Jolly Roger" was designed to intimidate as well as identify.  For example, if a ship was being attacked by a pirate vessel, they would know that it was Edward Teach (the notorious Blackbeard) who was approaching.  They may then choose to take to their longboats and abandon thier ship to the pirates, rather than fight and risk death (or worse!).  This was exactly the pirate's intent.  Pirates were essentially thiefs, and as such, preferred to get the booty with as little effort and loss of life (to themselves) as possible. 

 To continue with the pirate oriented theme of the hot dog stands, and with an ongoing interest in nautical history, we have adopted our own "Jolly Roger" as our logo.  You can see an example below on one of our stickers.