Psychedelic Broad & Snyder Chicago Dog from "Tony Cheesesteak"

Walking around Broad & Snyder the other day at 9 in the morning I was surprised to see a food truck parked right down the street from the Walgreens. And then even more surprised to see a crazy menu of super weird supposedly regional hot dog concoctions that looked like either a joke or the best thing on the planet.

I almost dropped my camera trying to take a million photos knowing this truck might only last a couple of days like the gray-hot-dog-food-poisoning nightmare cart that opened up on Broad & Morris last summer for a week or so.

Ahh yes, the old time Philly classic topped with sweet roasted peppers, pickles and American cheese. I couldn't bring myself to order this. I dunno, if it was tomatoes and banana peppers and called the "Pizzaz Dog" i'd probably write about it for the next 25 years.

Next up is the Chicago Dog. Note the authentic Chicago Dog photo, likely printed from the internet at Kinko's, confused by a description that includes "sweet peppers" (not sport peppers), lettuce, cheddar cheese (??) and celery (not celery salt).

Here goes the actual dog. A beef frank on a soft hoagie roll, topped with pickles, thick onion slices, sketchy tomatoes, processed American cheese, giant chunks of celery, ketchup and mayonnaise. 

Quite possibly the most bizarre interpretation of "Chicago Dog" I've ever seen or even heard of. So ridiculous it's sort of amazing, not to eat but maybe as some sort of postmodern "found hot dog art object??"

The ring of grey around the outside of the dog definitely worried me a little bit. I took maybe two bites, it wasn't as bad as I expected but definitely not a Chicago Dog. The American cheese / mayo / ketchup  /  pickles thing really just makes it taste like Mcdonalds, plus celery.

Next up, the Cajun Dog.

This was a spicy all beef sausage, wrapped in turkey ham (no pork on this truck) topped with more American cheese, pickles, onions, ketchup and mayonnaise on a toasted roll. 

The good thing about this one was that the sausage was decent, probably an all beef commercial Italian sausage. And it was actually sort of good, in a kind of drunken-bratwurst meets messy 7-11 nightmare sort of way. Hot dogs are just the beginning here - there's also breakfast sandwiches, burgers, coconut shrimp, egg rolls, and "Asian Coffee" which I'm pretty sure is just Vietnamese Coffee. 

I thought it might be fun to write about these on Hot Dog Of The Week and get the hot dog purists all riled up, but didn't exactly want to recommend these as something good to eat, and at the same time would have felt really bad writing a bad review - it's a great location, they seem like nice people,  and if they could work out the kinks, a hot dog truck on Snyder that serves coconut shrimp and vietnamese coffee called "Tony Cheesesteak" is pretty much the coolest thing in the world.

Tony Cheesesteak
Broad & Snyder
Philadelphia

The Sundowner

Lots and lots of pictures of The Sundowner - hamburger topped with "Coney Sauce", yellow mustard, super finely diced onions and a fried egg - from Coney Island Lunch in Johnstown.






Also "Delicious Coffee"...



Read about their hot dogs on Serious Eats-
Hot Dog Of The Week - Coney Island Lunch in Johnstown, PA

Coney Island Lunch
coneyislandjohnstownpa.com
127 Clinton Street Johnstown, PA 15901-2129
(814) 535-2885

Dapper Dog Kielbasa Special

Just in case you don't know, July is National Hot Dog Month which for me means hot dog overload, including several events to be announced. Along with Hot Dog Of The Week on Serious Eats I'm going to crank out some bonus posts of dogs I've enjoyed over the past year or so and haven't gotten around to writing about.


First up is Dapper Dog which I initially wrote about a while back when they first opened, but recently went back and was psyched about the quality of the dogs. They seem to have upped their game with more sophisticated toppings, and are using high quality garlicky all-beef dogs, no natural casing but all perfectly split & grilled.


The highlight of my most recent visit was their Banh-Mi esque Kielbasa special with cucumber, cilantro, jalapenos, and spicy mayo. The crunch of the sausage combined with cool cucumber, cilantro, mayo and the flaky Sarcone's bread was awesome.


The use of hoagie roll rather than hot dog bun works with the sausage, the meat/topping/bread ratio still in the right zone and makes sense conceptually, more vietnamese kielbasa hoagie than hot dog.

Their new weekend location in Garden Variety is terrific, you can grab beer at the Foodery across the street and wolf down some dogs. Things were hopping when we were there.. I would look for Dapper Dog to be a solid presence in the Philly hot dog / street food scene for years to come.

Dapper Dog
Fri & Sat at 2nd & Poplar
Lunch at Temple U. 13th & Norris (only during school year)
Lots of special events - follow them on twitter for updates

All the Hot Dogs

In case you missed any of the latest hot dog news, here's a recap-


Gilbert's Craft Sausages
Gilbert's is a new company out of Wisconsin doing high quality natural casing (technically a "beef collagen co-extrusion casing") dogs and sausages, cured with beet juice and celery powder rather than nitrates or chemicals. They also taste great. The awesome folks at Gilbert's were kind enough to send me a case of stuff to experiment with for Serious Eats.


Here's my Chicago-style take on Gilbert's all-beef Froman dog. Neon relish, homemade pickles, mustard, pickled serranos, onions, tomatoes, yellow mustard.

Read more-
Hot Dog Of The Week: The Froman from Gilbert's Craft Sausages


Last week I tried out Gilbert's Shabeergan Brat (steamed in beer then finished on the grill) and the South American-style Catalana pork sausage (piled into a grill-toasted Torta with avocado, grilled jalapeno, and mexi-mozz) both also really really good.


As for now they are available in select stores in the Wisconsin area, as well as Costco stores across the midwest (and via mailorder). Hopefully we'll see a local distributor soon.. Wegman's would get my vote.

Read more-
Hot Dog of the Week: Grilling the Catalana and Shabeergan Brats from Gilbert's Sausages
Gilbertssausages.com
***


Sandy's Pimento Cheese Dog
Ate this last summer in South Carolina. Easily in the top 2 or 3 hot dogs I've had in the south. Pimento cheese should be the next big thing.

Read more-
Hot Dog Of The Week : Pimento Cheese Dog from Sandy's Famous in South Carolina
twitter.com/SandysFamous
***


Otto's Sausage Kitchen
Caroline went to Portland and came back with these hot dog pictures. This is place is the real deal, an old school German butcher shop that makes their own franks and wursts and grills them in front of the store. Looks amazing.


Read more-
Hot Dog of the Week: Otto's Sausage Kitchen in Portland, OR
ottossausage.com
***

Memphis Taproom
Chau has already sung their praises here on DFF, but I have to agree that Memphis Taproom might serve the best hot dog I've ever eaten in Philadelphia, partly due to the fact that they use Best Provisions natural casing all-beef franks from New jersey, one of the best in the country. Known to hardcore hot doggers as the legendary Syd's Dog, you can also find this frankfurter at The Garage in north Jersey.


Read more-
Hot Dog of the Week: Memphis Taproom Beer Garden in Philadelphia
***
Scott Dogs
As you might have heard Memphis Taproom has some competition coming with Scott Schroeder's hot dog cart in the works featuring hand-made dogs from La Divisa Meats and Detroit Chili which If you've never had it is probably the best thing in the world. High hopes for this one.

Read more-
Meal Ticket: SPTR's Schroeder to start doggin' it
***
Hot Diggity
Last but not least is Hot Diggity, a brand new hot dog joint opening on South Street in Philadelphia sometime in the near future. The dogs are awesome, grilled Sabrett dogs on Liscio rolls served in ten (or more) different varieties. Oh and I should also mention that I illustrated the menu, in the form of ten giant hot dog paintings that will be hanging in the shop.


I've tried all the dogs and they are delicious, especially the Saigon Fusion which if you closed your eyes you might think you were eating a real Banh Mi. The fries are also OUTSTANDING. More info to come as the opening progresses...

Read more-
Meal Ticket: Hot Diggity! opening on South Street
Naked Philly: Hot Diggity Respecting The Dog
Hotdiggity on facebook

Rutt's Hut

Stopped at Rutt's at 9 in the morning on the way to 5 days of camping. Deep fried hot dogs with relish and cheese whiz washed down with breakfast Budweiser. Also corn on the cob.




The Bar / Dining room is pretty much the greatest place I have ever seen in my life. Once South Philly is completely gentrified I might just move to New Jersey and hang out here all day drawing hot dogs at the bar.



Read my full, official Rutt's Hut article over at Serious Eats.

Rutt's Hut
facebook page
417 River Road
Clifton, NJ

Hot Dog Madness - New Mexico Chile Dogs, Italian Dogs in Toms River, and Philly's Dapper Dog

Drawing For Food correspondent Caroline Russock recently came back from New Mexico with some fantastic photos of Albuquerque's Dog House Drive In, a route 66 truck driver counter joint packed to the gills with "rough and tumble dudes who looked like they've been baking in the New Mexican desert for their entire lives" and known for their hot dogs.



The Dog House serves foot long, split and grilled beef & pork dogs served on toasted rolls and slathered in red New Mexico style chile. Also on the menu - frito pie and green chile cheeseburgers. Read the full story on Serious Eats.



Dog House Drive-In
1216 Central Ave SW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
(505) 243-101

•••


Finally had my first authentic Italian Hot Dog at Joe-Joe's in Tom's River and it was awesome. A real New Jersey style Italian dog is deep fried and served on either a half or quarter loaf of "pizza bread" (a unique product made by a few old-school bakeries in North Jersey) and topped with peppers, onions, and deep fried potato wedges. Awesome.



A lot of places sell a watered down version that's basically a hot dog on a sub roll with hash browns and sauteed peppers. Which is fine but doesn't compare to the places like Joe-Joe's or Jimmy Buff's that specialize in Italian Hot Dogs. Do yourself a favor and check out what might be the country's least well known and most delicious hot dog variation. Read the full article on Serious Eats.


Joe-Joe's Italian Hot Dogs
2039 Route 37 E
Toms River NJ
(732) 270-9720

•••


I tried several times to catch Philadelphia's Dapper Dog cart at lunch at their main spot on the corner of 3rd & Poplar (across from the Standard Tap) but they were closed due to rain or technical difficulties. I was about to give up on them until my buddy Nick stumbled out of a bar and right into the Dapper Dog cart and stopped by with a pile of hot dogs.


The special (and my favorite) was a grilled dog topped with mounds of mashed potatoes and grilled scallion. Sounds weird but it wasn't bad, especially since the potatoes were damn good themselves. The beans on the "michigan" chili dog turned me off a bit but damn do they give you a lot of toppings for $3.50. Mac & Cheese dog was decent, some serious carb-on carb action to soak up all the alcohol in your system.


Other toppings include tomato sauce, pepperoni, asparagus, fried eggs. After 2am you can get one with anything (or everything) on it for 5 bucks. As well as setting up in Northern Liberties on weekend nights, Dapper Dog does a lot of street fairs and special events, follow their twitter and facebook for info. For more on Dapper Dog check out the feature on Serious Eats and a write up over at Don't Buy All The Hot Dogs.

Dapper Dog
2nd & Poplar
Philadelphia