Harry Coley treats every customer that enters his Knox Street store as if they will become his new regular. (Michael Danser/The Daily Campus)

Tucked in between an Apple store and a dry cleaner’s on Uptown’s bustling Knox Street is a bright pink and purple shop with a smiling, human-size hotdog welcoming every customer in to try some homemade custard and a wide variety of hot dogs.

Upon entering the store, you are welcomed as if you are the next loyal customer by an older gentleman whose eyes twinkle when he sees customers enjoying his wares. Welcome to Wild About Harry’s! Pictures of loyal customers and family members cover the walls in the ever-growing custard and hot dog shop.

Harry Coley is more than just the owner of his establishment. When it’s busy he will serve the custard himself, and not a single customer walks out the door without a smile, a head nod and a “come back and see us.”

For a man who hails from Hollis, Oklahoma and had no experience owning his own company, Harry Coley has succeeded beyond even his own expectations.

After 20 years selling women’s lingerie and more than that in men’s shirts and other clothing retail Coley, a man whose spry nature shows no age, was willing to give everything up to open a business that was a little more personal.

In 1985, when he first had the idea for a business that would sell his mother’s custard recipe and the all-American hot dog, his wife assured him it wasn’t the right time. Ten years later, when his daughter and son-in-law’s budding family overtook their childhood home in Rockwall, Coley and his wife made the move to Dallas.

They settled down not five minutes from Knox Street, and Coley finally saw his dream fulfilled. His own custard shop would be right across from an Eckerd drugstore, a Tom Thumb and a filling station.

Fifteen years later, the neighborhood has metamorphosed into a high-scale area for the likes of Crate & Barrel and Potterybarn, but the demand for custard and hotdogs still remains strong.

Coley’s eyes sparkle when he is given the chance to reminisce about his life. He talks about years following the Great Depression when his mom would make custard and hot dogs – hot dogs because they were cheap and custard because hers was the best. She made three flavors: vanilla, chocolate and peach. Today, Coley sells his mother’s creations, plus his grandmother’s peppermint, adding flavors of his own everyday, like coffee and coconut. And it borders on offensive when he is asked what makes this recipe better.

“As opposed to others? There’s no aftertaste,” Coley said. His very tone insists that one must only taste it to recognize the difference.

This defense is followed by an admission that his mother’s custard was even better than the one he sells, because of the high fat content that would be unmarketable to a health conscious market. The vanilla mix is the base for all the other flavors. Coley’s favorite? Vanilla, of course.

This achievement of a successful business and status of neighborhood icon is one that Harry does not take for granted.

“I’m really here to make people happy and serve people. My daddy once said, ‘It doesn’t cost you a penny to be nice,'” Coley said. “I always ask, “‘What’s the point of owning a business if you’re not serving mankind?'”

When he explains the amount of perseverance it takes to turn a profit, he jumps to his feet and demonstrates the original layout of the store.

He points out the counter and stretches his long, scrawny arms out to show the amount of floor space where the ever-growing number of customers would stand in line for their favorite flavor. Coley stands tall and straight as he proudly shows off the amount that the store has grown. He tucks his blue polo with his own logo into his tidy white jeans. This man is as put together as his shop.

His focus on people is evident in everything at Wild About Harry’s. Coley is proud of every customer he’s ever had at his ice cream shop, showing off pictures of everyone from his grandchildren to Chuck Norris eating his delicious custard.

Wild About Harry’s has been a neighborhood favorite for years, and whether you’re craving a big, juicy hotdog or a frozen custard, stop by and see why everyone is wild about Harry.