Local Business Honors Loved One’s Legacy

SYRACUSE, N.Y (CITRUSTV NEWS) — Finding a high school sweetheart is rare, but when you know, you know. This was the case for John Bertolero, who met Jillie his freshman year of high school.

“The crazy thing is we dated all through high school. She went to college, we dated through college and we never broke up once, ” Bertolero said.

Out of college John and Jilie started their own hot dog stand called Little John’s. This was where Jille decided to create her special sauce for the hotdogs.

“We would go up to Rudy’s all the time and one day we were having their Texas hot sauce. Jill was like I think I can do better, so she started putting stuff together. She tried a little bit of this and a little bit of that and she nailed it. She came up with that Texas hot sauce, we call it Jillie sauce,” Bertolero said.

A couple years later, life took an unexpected turn. Jillie passed away in 2021.

“I’ve known her since freshman year of high school. We dated all the way through, married. 32 years of marriage, working side by side. So when she passed away you know it just kind of left a huge void, ” Bertolero said.

This is when he started a new hot dog company in her honor called Jillie Dogs. Bertolero wanted to make it special by naming each of the hot dogs on the menu after Jillie’s loved ones.

“It helped me recover. I know she is looking over me and I know she is watching. I know she is happy with what we have accomplished so far, ” Bertolero said.

Jillie Dogs was a way for Bertolero to keep Jillie’s spirit alive and allow himself to heal.

Reporter: Sofia Destaso