Charlie LaBella shows off a sausage sub from his new hot dog – and sausage – vending cart in Market Square. Bruno Matarazzo Jr./Staff photographer

AMESBURY — “Hot dogs. Get your hot dogs here.”

They are the words you expect to hear at Fenway Park. But in Market Square in Amesbury?

That’s what Charlie LaBella is aiming to do with his new hot dog vending cart he’s calling Monstah Dawgs. Not Monster Dogs. Monstah Dawgs.

“I’m a big Red Sox fan,” LaBella said.

The retired Malden Mills plant manager who was also on the Amesbury School Committee is operating his vending cart during the lunch hours as a summer business.

It’s something he’s always wanted to do. But when friends told him he’d never do it, LaBella said, “Watch me.”

“I like to talk to people. I lived in town for 30 years. My family grew up here. My kids went to school here,” he said.

He originally planned on being in the downtown two to three days a week, but now he’s there every weekday.

LaBella isn’t selling plain old hot dogs. He’s also offering beef hot dogs, turkey hot dogs and even organic hot dogs. After some demand, he’s now offering sausages.

He steams his hot dogs on site in his vending cart but cooks his sausage at home.

In his first few weeks, he’s learned what makes a good hot-dog business.

“(My customers) are very big on condiments,” LaBella said.

He’s got the usual condiments: mustard and relish, but even some secret relish and sauce condiments made by Nanna, his best friend’s mother-in-law.

LaBella plans to man the station until school starts and he begins his job at Newbury Elementary School as an instructional assistant.

http://www.newburyportnews.com/local/x541064894/LaBella-selling-Monstah-Dawgs-in-Market-Square