By Lucia Anderson

The smell of frying onions drifts across the parking lot.

Shoppers hurrying into Lowe's slow, then stop, distracted from their quest for 2-by-4's and kitchen faucets by thoughts of Italian sausage or Philly cheese-steak sandwiches.

Enough of them turn aside to make the Dominic's of New York^® sandwich kiosk in Central Park one of the top moneymakers in the 58-store chain.

Italian sausage? Philly cheese steak? New York hot dogs? In Virginia?

“That's what the officials who were helping us get started here said,” said John Felico, chief executive officer of FoodNet, the corporate umbrella for Dominic's. “ ‘You can't sell northern food in Virginia,' they said.”

Karen Robertson of Ladysmith disagrees.

She dragged her husband to Lowe's, rather than another home-improvement store, because she knew she could eat at Dominic's if they made their purchase there.

“I hate Central Park,” Thomas Robertson said. “I try to avoid it.”

But he bowed to his wife's craving for a steak-and-cheese sandwich and bought a Philly chicken sandwich for himself.

Karen Robertson, who works at the Rappahannock Area Community Services Boards, said she comes by the kiosk for lunch about once a week.

Joe Spencer of Richmond, working on the remodeling project at Lowe's, made short work of two New York hot dogs.

“I eat lots of Southern food,” Spencer said. “But these are the best hot dogs in town.”

Mike Robison currently owns the franchise in Central Park and another at Quantico Marine Corps Base. He is thinking of relocating to another area, so is offering the franchise for sale.

Robison attributed the popularity of Dominic's food to two factors. One is that many of the people moving into his growing area come from regions where the sort of food that Dominic's service is common.

“It reminds them of home,” Robison said.

The other is all about the smell.

“The smell of onions and peppers reminds people of carnivals,” Robison said.

Festivals are precisely where Dominic's got its start.

John Felico's grandfather used to sell candy and roasted peanuts at Italian street fairs in New York. Felico's father, Dominic, expanded the business to include Italian sausage and hot dogs, and moved from the festival scene to a year-round stand.

John Felico started his own stand, then came up with the idea of leasing space in front of big retail establishments. Since most of his customers were men, he focused on home-improvement retailers. Lowe's agreed to his proposal and, since there weren't any Lowe's stress in the Northeast in 1994, Felico moved to Virginia.

The Lowe's location makes sense to Robison.

“We're like a barnacle on a whale,” he said.

Peak sandwich sales occur in the spring and fall when homeowners embark on their big projects and flock to the store to get supplies.

Customers like the idea that they can find the same food at any Dominic's anywhere.

Jim Lopretto of Virginia Beach, here with the Lowe's remodeling project, said he just returned from a similar project in Pennsylvania.

“Instead of having to go out and look around for lunch, you can get it right here,” Lopretto said. “They give you a big variety and it's inexpensive.”

Felico takes great pains to make sure that all of the franchises deliver the same goods.

“I tell them there's no room for individual interpretation,” Felico said in a telephone interview from his corporate offices in Glen Allen. “If they want to get creative with it, they should have opened their own café.”

“The central Park Dominic's is consistently in the top three moneymakers for the chain,” Felico said.

“We sell over 100 steak sandwiches every day,” said Eric Eck, who manages the kiosk for Robison.

And as customers gathered in the rain, Eck dumped another heap of onions on the grill, sending the smell seeping into through the constantly opening doors of the store.

“That's why we cook the onions,” said Eck. “To get the smell out. It's a cheap way to advertise.”