SHERMAN OAKS - Faithful Charlie Sheen fans eager to get some of the star's celebrated "tiger blood" flowing in their veins have been flocking to the San Fernando Valley in hopes of acquiring some "Adonis DNA."
The local shrine is a humble hot dog stand on Ventura Boulevard, which the embattled star of the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" has turned into a Twitter and news media sensation.
Robert Davitian, owner of the baseball-motifed The Infield, says business has been up at least 30 percent since mid-week when Sheen tweeted a photograph of the restaurant's menu chalk board featuring his deal-of-the-day creation: the "Charlie Dog with Tiger Blood."
"Get'm while they're hot..!" Sheen tweeted.
"Now we're hot ? I'm having to get two new people just to handle the business," Davitian said Friday as he handled a flood of interviews and media requests from around the world.
Sheen has created a Twitter maelstrom, signing up more than 1 million followers in less than 24 hours in the wake of a bitter war with the studio and producers who shut down his hit CBS show and a nasty custody battle in which he had his twin toddlers removed from his home.
"I don't get into any of that," Davitian said. "We wish him well. Charlie's been a good customer of ours."
The Charlie Dog is a Chicago-style hot dog: quarter-pound all-beef natural casing hot dog with mustard, neon-green relish, onions, tomatoes, sport peppers, celery salt and a kosher pickle spear, topped by Sriracha hot chili sauce, also known as Sheen's "Tiger Blood."
"Charlie created it himself," said Davitian, who was away when Sheen went to The Infield this week. "My manager Ricky called and said Charlie wants a Charlie Dog, and he asks me, 'What's in a Charlie Dog?' I said, 'Whatever Charlie wants!"'
As a joke, Davitian has added his eatery's diet-killing fried Twinkie and called it the Goddess in honor of a porn star and a marijuana magazine pinup ? whom Sheen calls "goddesses" ? who live with the actor.
"I haven't heard from Charlie since he Tweeted," Davitian said, "but I'm thankful ? how could I not be? If this keeps up, we'll be looking for investors and thinking about expanding."
Already it has been standing room only at times in The Infield's covered outdoor patio which features box seats from some of the game's most fabled cathedrals: the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field, old Tiger Stadium from Detroit, Angel Stadium in Anaheim and the St. Louis Cardinals' Busch Memorial Stadium.
Record producer Evan Forster said he and his 6-year-old daughter Ella Rose went to get Charlie Dogs after hearing about them through a television show. But he admits the Sheen controversy is troubling.
"I was talking to my daughter," he said, "and she said, 'Daddy, I'm winning!"' a reference to one of the phrases the actor has appropriated as a self-description.
"I had to say, "What? No more 'Two and a Half Men' for her!"
Charlie Dogs notwithstanding, Foster said he doesn't condone Sheen's outlandish and outspoken behavior that has included days of bizarre, manic and sometimes-violent comments in a public campaign to prove that he is drug-free and fit to continue working on the final episodes of TV's No. 1 comedy.
"Contrary to what they say, there is bad publicity," Foster said. "Charlie Sheen having porn stars in his house with his two young children ? that's not good publicity.
"The only good publicity has been what he's done for this hot dog stand."
Many of those who came to The Infield said they were drawn by either the tweets or the publicity about them, even if their dog of choice was not the Charlie Dog.
"He's a lunatic," said video wholesaler Scott Glick, who brought his pal Rudy Jimenez to The Infield after hearing that Sheen was promoting it.
"I agree ? he's a nut case," Jimenez said.
"Money and fame and being out of control ? those are all the ingredients to lose your mind," said Glick.
"It's pretty comical, to be honest," said Internet technician Alex Melgarejo. "I heard about (him promoting) the Charlie Dog here, and I thought, 'I have to go there and get the full experience!"'
Xiomara Cubias, who called herself "a vampire" because she draws blood at a health clinic, was more forgiving of the actor and his meltdowns.
"Everyone gets mixed up in scandals when they're famous, so for me, this is no big deal," Cubias said as she studied the menu board and kept checking out the Charlie Dog. "I'm tempted to get it."
All the while, The Infield is loving its time in the spotlight and the arrival of customers like attorney Evan Abrams, who had just gotten off a flight from San Francisco.
"I couldn't wait to get here," Abrams said, sitting with two Charlie Dogs. "If you're going to experience L.A., you have to come here."
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