‘I turned an old caravan into a viral hotdog success - now I’m being forced to close it down’

Alyas Muhammad set up Mo’s Street Dogs from his home in Harehills, Leeds.

Within a month of starting his venture “Mo” had progressed from a stove after finding a caravan online.

He converted the caravan into a street food outlet. Within weeks of opening, Mo had gone viral online.

Despite his popularity, Mo has been forced to close his popular hot dog stall following a visit from Leeds City Council.

Mo said: “I’ve always cooked Asian food but I started properly learning how to cook in lockdown.

“I had been struggling with my mental health. Cooking was a coping mechanism.”

When Mo - as he is known - moved to Harehills from Bradford with his partner to be closer to her family earlier this year, he decided to pursue his dream of making and selling street food.

He said: “A few months ago I set up a stove outside my house and started selling some halal hot dogs.

“There’s a lot of homeless people around here so I would give away free hot dogs every day and make sure everyone had a hot meal.”

Despite Mo’s altruistic efforts he experienced a lot of abuse by passers by.

“People aren’t used to seeing a Pakistani man sell hot dogs even though they're halal, people didn’t understand. I had people spit in my pan.”

Mo decided to look for a shelter to prevent this happening, which is when he found an old caravan on a local selling site.

“A man had already started to convert a caravan with a food window but he hadn’t finished it.”

Mo bought the caravan for £90, which gave him some spare cash to do it up. He said the original owner was really keen to hear how he got on.

“Just over a month ago I opened it up as a hot dog van. I couldn’t believe how popular it was,” said Mo, who went viral after a local DJ spotted his modest caravan on Facebook.

DJ MT, who had seen a friend post about Mo, said: “People obviously loved him because a signage company had sponsored him and made him a proper sign.

“For a laugh, I thought I'd make him a ‘Straight Outta Harehills’ graphic using my friend's photo of his caravan.”

To DJ MT’s surprise his Facebook post went viral, reaching more than a million people online.

He said: “I’d never seen anything like it. People all over were loving it. It’s just a nice guy doing good.”

The next time DJ MT drove past he decided to try Mo’s.

He said: “I thought I can’t knock it until I've tried it and you can’t go wrong with a £2 hotdog.”

DJ MT was so impressed by Mo’s aspirations of setting up his own food business in this old caravan that he continued posting about him online.

“I did a little review and photo of me trying it with a bit of relish on it. It was bang on.”

With his caravan going viral online, Mo was inundated with interest.

“I had lots of customers and I was really enjoying chatting to people. I was still feeding at least ten homeless people a day as well,” he added.

Despite his popularity with the public, Mo received a visit from the council due to complaints.

“They said I need planning permission because it’s a change of use of my premises. “I agree it’s a bit of an eyesore but even if I do it up I'd still need permission.”

Mo has now closed his venture but dreams of finding something else.

“Everyone loved the concept and eventually I’d wanted to make and sell burritos because that’s what I'm good at,” he said.

“I don’t really know what I'm going to do next. I've looked at a few street food vans. It’s back to the drawing board.”

Mo is on the search to find another place to re-launch his concept.

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said: “Officers from the council’s planning enforcement and environmental health teams have visited the site and been in dialogue with the owner of the business concerned, making him aware of the legal requirements needed in terms of planning permission, registering as a food business and complying with food hygiene requirements.

“As a result of that dialogue, the owner indicated he did not wish to proceed with that process and would cease trading and remove the caravan from the site.

“We will continue to monitor the site and if such use continues without permission formal action may follow.”