It’s spooky season — but every weekend is Halloween for this horror-themed hot dog cart

The goth-themed hot dog cart pops up in Burbank on Saturdays and in Santa Clarita on Sundays, and serves specials such as the Cannibal: faux chicken smothered in barbecue sauce, slaw, fried onions and “Soylent Green” sauce. The plastic skeleton behind the gothic hot dog cart doesn’t say much, but the little card resting on the brass tip jar says enough: HOPE TO URN YOUR TIP. Customers are instructed to “choose your ending” with build-your-own options of Dr. Frankens or Witches with toppings such as mustard, barbecue sauce, relish and fried onions, or opt for specials such as the Swamp Thing, a vegan “frankenfurter” drowned in Alishan’s chili of beans, spices and soy meat, plus his house-made nacho cheese-like sauce, a convincing blend of carrots, potatoes, spices, nondairy milk and nutritional yeast. On Sundays, the Frankenstand crops up at the decidedly less spooky Gentle Barn in Santa Clarita, where ticketed entry grants access to an animal sanctuary as well as Alishan’s plant-based hot dogs. On Saturday afternoons, the “haunt dogs” can be found outside Burbank’s Mystic Museum, a combination retail shop, art space and museum dedicated to oddities, horror and the occult, where customers line up for the singular spooky food cart or order ahead with “curse-side pickup.” Eventually, Alishan hopes to open a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, perhaps a roadside stand, for his hot dogs and the more elaborate dishes he’s been dreaming up for years.