Depression Dog

Latest Hot Dog Of The Week on Serious Eats. The Depression Dog is a minimalist Chicago-style dog that's piled high with french fries, almost like a North Jersey- style Italian hot dog, and served in overstock mcdonald's bags at awesome out-of the way hot dog joints with bullet holes in the signs.


Check out Titus Ruscetti's blog for more on Depression Dogs: chibbqking.blogspot.com


I haven't been posting all of my hot dog of the week illustrations here so if you missed any be sure to check them out. Last week I did the NYC Papaya Dog, and before that Hawaii's Puka Dog, and the West Virginia Slaw Dog.

chicago dogs

so it's nice to go to chicago and try out some of the fancy new restaurants where truffled bacon chips hang from wires and chefs pump blueberry caviar smoke into your face with strange gadgets, but what I really wanted to eat was some chicago hot dogs.

a hot steaming dog covered in whole pickle spears, diced raw onions, sliced tomato, hot peppers, celery salt, yellow mustard and neon green relish, delicious.




first stop was "Mister J's dawg and burger" which we stumbled past after eating a deep dish pizza (also delicious) but couldn't resist the glow of the yellow and red sign. pretty good and garlicky. No poppy seeds on the bun or celery salt though.




the next night we were wandering out of some dive bar and saw yellow lights in the distance and ended up at clark dog which for some reason also has philly cheese steaks (didnt try) but the dogs were delicious. also there is a bar next door which sounds like the prefect place to me.





then we sought out the wiener's circle which is know for insane screaming matches between the customers and the staff late at night. we were there during the day and the staff was very pleasant which was sort of disappointing but the dogs and fries were fantastic. with 2 pickle spears and giant thick slices of tomato it was like eating a hoagie. also wiener's circle "char-dogs" are available grilled (most seem to be steamed) which is great.

there's also hot doug's which has wild stuff like fries cooked in duck fat, corned beef reuben sausage, all kinds of stuff but we didn't make it there this time..

Mister J's Dawg n Burger
822 N state st

Clark St Dog
3040 N clark st

Wiener's Circle
2622 N clark st

ghost town

I don't know if it was because there was flooding a few weeks ago, but chinatown in chicago at 8pm on a wednesday is pretty much vacant. there were maybe 3 other people on the pitch black street and most of the restaurants were empty.

anyway we ended up at 'cantonesia' where we were the only people there. seems strange in the third largest city in the united states.

i kept waiting for gangsters to jump out of the ceiling or a little wizard man out of 'big trouble in little china' to float out of the kitchen in a cloud of green smoke.

the food was decent - seaweed soup, dumplings, lo mein - and we drank a bunch of tsingtao. the lights went off and doors locked as soon as we left the building.

custom house

custom house was our first meal in chicago. we were originally planning to go to alinea or tru but custom house looked a bit more relaxed, more affordable -and right down the street from our hotel. turned out to be the best meal of the trip.

the menu is mostly meat; braised meats, housemade bacon, pork belly and steak, a-la-carte style almost like a steakhouse but with much more eclectic food and a focus on local farm produce.

started with a heirloom tomato-mozzarella salad with watermelon "variations" - diced, pickled rind, and granita - fantastic. sweetbreads and bacon with white polenta - delicious.

then bone-in shortrib, bacon wrapped rabbit loin, and a side of cauliflower with fromage blanc that was delicious, and made me wish we ordered more sides (everything from sheeps milk potato gratin to swiss chard gnocchi).

dessert was awesome - sorry no pictures, i was drunk and/or batteries ran out - plum linzertorte with brown sugar ice cream and a "smores parfait" with black lava salt and toasted marshmallow that was incredible. i've had a lot of forgettable desserts lately that seemed like an afterthought, custom house's pastry chef is on her game, I would go back just for that.

custom house
500 S. dearborn
chicago