A native of Switzerland, owner Nicolas Caniglia decided when his son was born, it was important to teach him of his heritage. Creating Swieners was the perfect way for him to combine his professional experience in the restaurant industry with his Swiss roots. Swieners allows him to share his culture with his family as well as local San Diegans. He is very excited to introduce quality Swiss products to the San Diego market. Swieners got its start at Balboa Park’s December Nights. Following such a great reception at its inaugural event, Swieners has delighted foodies at local festivals such as UCSD’s Sungod and San Diego pride.
We all know I do the talking, so let me give you the 411 on how we got started.
After listening to Nico rave about the wieners* he grew up eating in Switzerland, I was stoked when he decided to put his money where his mouth was. He wanted to serve bomb ass, authentic sausages in fresh baguettes. Would I help him build the company? Fo’ sho’.
We got together with about 25 international friends and family, and asked them to be our taste testers. You should have heard some of the ideas and names we came up with. The “Magnum” Swiener, the “Yodeler”… In the end, it was the creation of adding the melted Raclette cheese from the Swiss Alps that really made our wiener, well, a Swiener.
We got our first chance to sell our Swieners at December Nights. When people walked away super satisfied with their product, claiming they had a new word “Swiener”, we knew that our instincts and hard work had paid off.
As we always say, “Once you taste our Swiener, you’ll never want another wiener!”
Amanda Caniglia
the co-cheese
*wiener= Swiss word for hot dog
David Gubser
January 21, 2012 at 11:59 pmHi
I’m looking for real swiss Raclette chese in San Diego, It’s cold and rainy and I-m a bit homesick, and would love to have to real Raclette, but my nr.1 source of Raclette chese the little store in La Jolla Shores is out of stock. So can you guys give me a tip where a swiss guy can get some real swiss raclette chese in San Diego.
Dave
Patrick Burkhardt
July 1, 2013 at 9:15 pmYou can find raclette at any of the Venissimo cheese shops. Here is their link http://www.venissimo.com
I’m swiss and have been eating raclette since before I could walk! Venissimo is the best place buy it!!
Teresa Owens
September 17, 2012 at 9:07 amHey Amanda,
I work with your dad at BART and we were talking about your business and mine, we just started doing farmers markets this year selling BBQ My husband is a great cook. He told me you were thinking about franchising, or maybe we could just sell your product up here in no. ca. my number is 9258489310 im also on facebook we had a website……. but didnt know what we were doing, need to have it done professionaly
hope to talk to you soon and cant wait to try a swiener 🙂
Co-Cheese
September 24, 2012 at 8:17 pmTeresa, shoot me an e-mail at amanda@swieners.com
Joel Rodrig
March 14, 2013 at 8:40 pmJust curious why you charge $9-bucks for suck a “child portioned” Euro-dog? My wife and I were at Ballast Point towards the end of 2012 and were disappointed with what we got for $9.00.
If you are a legit food provisioner, then my comment will appear on this “reply” page. How do you justify charging so much for such an in-expensive concept?
The economy is whacked, so are your prices & your “pushy” wife. I tried to ask: “how do I order?”, she just demanded my name and “told me what I wanted”, rather than asking “what I liked”. That’s NOT customer service, that’s servicing your money purse!
If you would like to email me, I have included it for that purpose.
By the way, I sent a couple family members to eat at your tent, they said the same about your REDICULOUS prices!!!
Amanda Caniglia
March 14, 2013 at 9:45 pmJoel,
We understand that you might not like our service but Swieners is not your typical food tent. We have fun with customers and give an entirely different experience. We are known for our aggressiveness and have a great rapport with all the customers at the 20+ breweries we work with. We don’t serve hot dogs. We serve locally sourced gourmet sausage in fresh local baguettes from Bread & Cie. Our cheese is Swiss Raclette imported from Switzerland. You can get a processed sausage at any local fair for $8-9 dollars, and it is served in an average bun. You an pay $12 for a Hebrew national at the ballpark. We and our hundreds of followers feel that we offer a very unique concept (we created a Swiener, this does not exist anywhere else in the world). Moreover, we feel we offer a quality product. We understand you have your own opinion and respect it. This is the first time in 2 and a half years that we have received a complaint. If you would like to speak to the owner, Nicolas, he is more than happy to make time for you. Sincerely, Swieners
Joel Rodrig
March 15, 2013 at 12:30 amThank you for the prompt reply. I agree with having my own opinion of Swieners. The way I found you in the first place was thru http://www.yelp.com, I read a few reviews and didn’t believe that someone would speak negatively about your business, given the unique concept… a couple people said THE SAME THING ABOUT YOUR $9.00 PORTIONS = not worth it at all!!
We looked into you for ourselves and were impressed with the flavors, but dis-satisfied with your prices. Just my opinion, not that it matters, but I’m sure people are looking to get what they pay for, and your Swieners ARE NOT WORTH $9.00!!