Most may think “dog” when the term “man’s best friend” is used, but they probably don’t think of hot dogs.

John Pedigo opened Man’s Best Friend Hot Dogs last week. MBF Hot Dogs is a new campus food cart found on Sixth and Daniel. Pedigo, a computer science major at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, said he was a semester ahead in credits and wanted to open his own business.

“A lot of adults told me my whole life that it was going to be so hard to step out and make money in the real world,” Pedigo said. “I just didn’t believe that, and I wanted to see for myself if it was that hard, and it really isn’t.”

Pedigo opened MBF Hot Dogs with the help of his roommate, Chris Bagsby. Bagsby is also a student taking a break from the University of South Carolina and has known Pedigo since they attended Homewood-Flossmoor High School together.

MBF Hot Dogs only offers hot dogs right now, but Pedigo said he wants to add “all kinds of random stuff” to the menu.

Originally they were supposed to move back to Champaign and start a computer repair business together, but Pedigo saw the hot dog stand online and Bagsby agreed to help him open it. Kickstarter.com raised enough money for Pedigo to purchase “the cash cow,” from Ben’s Carts in Tennessee.

MBF Hot Dogs is confined to its spot at Sixth and Daniel streets in Champaign because of health department reasons. When not in use, the cart is stored inside Community United Church. Pedigo said forming a contract with Community United Church and meeting health department standards took the most time when making plans for the business.

The roommates were also busy planning an entirely different entrepreneurship adventure.

While Pedigo and Bagsby say they do both enjoy hot dogs, they are using the business to promote a self-designed video game based on the University of Illinois.

Bagsby taught himself to code before the semester started and Pedigo understands computer programming and with their combined knowledge created “The Mystery of Morrow Plots: The U of I video game.” The game can be found on the business’ website, http://mbfhotdogs.com.

“We’re thinking outside of the box with everything with this (hot dog) stand,” Bagsby said.

In the game, hot dogs represent life and refuel players. Players can travel to Green St. to pick up more hot dogs at the hot dog stand.

Pedigo didn’t plan for the hot dog stand to promote the video game or vice-versa, but “the two just combined,” he said.

Another high school friend, Marty Arneberg, senior in Media at the University, promotes the business and the video game. He also contributed a lot of University “insider” information.

“I was a student (here), and he wasn’t, so I was giving him tips and stuff to put in the game,” Arneberg said. “At first I was the liaison into the U of I, and then I started doing stuff for their Twitter and Facebook.”

Pedigo needed Bagsby’s help along the way for everything from designing the video game to physically obtaining the cart.

The cart was shipped via freight train to a terminal outside of Champaign. Bagsby rode with Pedigo in his Ford Taurus to pick it up.

They were able to get the cart in the car well enough, but driving home in a rainstorm was the challenging part. One of Pedigo’s windshield wipers was broken to the point of scratching his windshield when he used it, so he didn’t turn his wipers on while driving.

“We were blindly going through (the rain) picking up this cart,” Pedigo said. “But we’re alive, the cart’s fine.”

Adults can say anything they want to about Pedigo. Not even a blind drive through a rainstorm can stop him.

Janelle can be reached at [email protected].