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.

Nick's Charcoal Pit - Again

Chau wrote about Nick's maybe a year ago and kept telling me how great it is. Finally gave it a shot and it was awesome. Now for the purists, some of the stuff on the menu says "BBQ" but this is not smoked, traditional southern bbq at all, but charcoal grilled ribs, chicken and even filet mignon slathered in BBQ sauce. They also do burgers and philly-style sandwiches on Sarcone's bread packed with everything from grilled sausage to tuna steak.

The ribs were really good and tender, wings better than most.. but my favorite thing was the char-grilled, split hot dog covered with bacon and cheese whiz on a kaiser roll. Amazing.

Nick's Charcoal Pit
(Take Out & Delivery Only)
1242 Snyder
South Philadelphia

Hot Dog Prints!

Prints available now! 4 different designs from my Hot Dog Of The Week series. I think they came out fantastic, thanks to the kind folks at Silicon Gallery Fine Art here in Philadelphia.

These are 11 x 14, high quality giclee prints on acid free, archival paper. 27 bucks a pop plus shipping from my website.

Initally produced as illustrations for an ongoing series of hot dog articles for seriouseats.com. I really don't know who wouldn't want one of these in their kitchen.

BUY PRINTS HERE

Dinic's at the Navy Yard

Didn't even know this was here! A real steak and hoagie stand smack in the middle of the Philadelphia Navy Yard. I'm assuming it's somehow related to the other Dinic's- the roast pork stand in the Reading Terminal Market (always terrific and one of the best things about the reading terminal) and the tavern on Snyder (never been there..looks amazing, hope it's still open).

Busted up old picnic tables, dockworkers and union guys... you know it's going to be good. Cheesesteaks and Roast beef on the same menu. The chicken cutlet was delicious. Cheesesteak hoagie with longhots was decent, although I hear the hoagies are the way to go.
Lunch only, closes at 4pm!

Dinic's
15 Kitty Hawk Avenue
Philadelphia Navy Yard
(map)

Kline's Restaurant

On the way home from camping we were hung over and dying for some diner food. Stopped in Cumberland, MD but the only place open didn't serve breakfast, and when we asked the waitress where to go she told us "Mcdonald's". Kind of hard to believe that an old mining town in the middle of nowhere full of old guys in VFW hats doesn't have a diner. Anyway it took an hour but we found the real deal about a mile outside of Cumberland on route 40.

Kline's restaurant is by the railroad tracks under a giant cliff. The "Lover's Leap Lounge" is to the left when you walk in and was filled with previously mentioned old dudes drinking beer at 10:30 on a Sunday morning. The restaurant itself was packed to the gills looked like the real thing. Everything on the menu was around 5 dollars and the food was incredible.



I had country ham & eggs with texas toast and noticed "gravy...75 cents" on the side order menu. Had to see what that was all about and she said, "Oh hon, that's not what you think it is, it's sausage gravy".. even better. Strange because there is no biscuits or biscuits and gravy on the menu. The food hit the spot, real slices of ham, amazing sausage gravy, even the home fries were fantastic and definitely made from fresh potatoes. In fact I'd guess most if not all of the food here is made from scratch.

Kline's Restaurant
1068 National Hwy (US route 40 ALT)
Cumberland, MD 21502

Man Camp Cookin'

Just got home from 5 days of eating meat and drinking whiskey in the mountains. This year we went to Abrams' Creek in West Virginia, way up in the Alleghenies and frequented by people named "Lightning Wolf" and "Rainbow Spider". There's a geodesic dome and bonfires complete with wild drumming and fire dancing.

Also some of the most amazing mountain country where the closest town with more than two buildings is 20 miles down crazy winding roads. Super awesome but you'd better be prepared because it really sucks if you forget supplies and have to go back and hour and half for ice or paper towels or something.



We built a 3-tiered cooking pit with some grill grates from Home Depot jerry-rigged with some stuff from a metal shop. Didn't think it was going to work at all but it did the trick. The first night I put a rub on some ribs and cooked them on the top tier for 2 and a half hours, totally expecting them to be either raw or overcooked and dry but they were right on. The 10 LB pork shoulder was a bit trickier, that thing was cooking for like 6 hours and still raw in the middle, can't win them all I guess.


We also brought a rotisserie and some whole chickens from a farmer's market in the middle of Pennsylvania, poured beer and whiskey all over them, bacon under the skin, stuffed the cavity with onions and celery (and a can of beer towards the end) . Dunked into the vanilla-bourbon barbecue sauce and that was probably the best thing I've eaten in 5 years.



Later that night we were feeling extra awesome and decided to stuff a banana with marshmallows, dump whiskey on it and throw it in the fire wrapped in foil. The marshmallows foamed up and melted into the whiskey and banana like a pudding. Unbelievable.

Martie's Hot Dogs - Keyser, WV

Martie's was our last hot dog stop on the drive from Philadelphia to West Virginia. Located on the struggling main street of Keyser, it's easy to miss because the sign out front is from a frame shop that closed a few months ago. The inside has a counter and stools, filled with old signs and hundreds of hot sauce bottles.

First thing we noticed were the ice cold bottles of beer for $2 a pop. Second thing we noticed was the smoke filled Video Poker lounge in the back room full of dudes in wildlife t-shirts. Definitely a local hang out, there were newspapers and ashtrays everywhere and self service cups of coffee for 50 cents. The proprietress (Martie?) was super friendly, Instantly knew this place was going to be a winner.



The dogs were grilled to order and piled high with spicy chili and creamy slaw. I've read about west virginia's sweet hot dog slaw and figured it couldn't be much different than anything I'd had before, but it was. Also for a near ghost town i was surprised at how fresh everything was. Possibly the best dogs of trip.

Learn more about Martie's and West Virginia hot dogs in general at wvhotdogs.com.

Martie's Hot Dogs
96 N Main St
Keyser, WV

Curtis' Coney Island Famous Weiners

Curtis' Coney Island is in the old mining town of Cumberland, located in the narrowest western part of Maryland right between PA and West Virginia. It's been on Liberty St. since 1918, originally called Coney Island Lunch. George Giatras & his soon to be wife worked at the stand when it first opened. Their son Louis bought the business in 1969 and opened a second restaurant 5 doors down the block, and ran both places for at least 30 years. Lou's son Gino is now running the business at the newer location.

When I saw the lettering on the windows I knew we were in the right place. Amazing. You can see the dudes making the dogs right in the front window. Sit at the counter and watch the game (pittsburgh teams out here) and check out all the old signs & stuff on the walls. There's also booth seating (which was packed) and tons of people coming in for take-out. Super friendly & fast service too. This place isn't going anywhere.



The dogs here are "Coney Island Weiner" style which is pretty much the same as a "Texas Weiner" but without the greek flavors in the sauce. Also the dog was not split - as seems to be the custom in Philly and Central PA - but grilled whole. The actual dogs were super flavorful here. Side of crinkle-cut fries and Cherry Smash soda, awesome. They also do a fried fish tail sandwich and a chocolate rickey which I was informed is "just chocolate milk with ice cubes in it".




Cumberland was a little more "quaint" than Chambersburg but has a ton of amazing old signage and plenty of neck tattoos.
Check out some shots on flickr if you're interested.

Curtis' Coney Island Weiners
35 N Liberty St
Cumberland, MD 21502

Historic Texas Lunch

Last week I spent way too much time researching the Texas Weiner and Texas Lunch phenomenon for my hot dog of the week illustration on serious eats. And noticed there are still a whole bunch of Texas Weiner / Texas Lunch style hot dog restaurants all across Pennsylvania.

So on the way to go camping in West Virginia I decided to do a hot dog tour starting with Historic Texas Lunch in Chambersburg, PA... an amazing half-empty small town that looks like it hasn't changed in 100 years except for the Mexican stores and tacquerias that are filling up vacant storefronts (save that for another trip I guess).



Historic Texas Lunch has been around for 40 years, remodeled in the 80's but still has an amazing diner atmosphere. It wasn't quite what I had expected, the menu was more diner than hot dogs, complete with creamed chip beef on toast, cheesesteaks, chicken croquettes, spaghetti and meatballs. But we came for the hot dogs that were served up in the Pennsylvania Texas Weiner style, split and grilled, covered in greek sauce, mustard and a massive pile of onions.

The dogs were great but the people looked at us like we were from outer space. Definitely a townie spot minus the usual hospitality. Maybe they're just fed up with city folk with cameras treating their hometown diner like a curiosity. Either way the dogs were decent and Chambersburg is an awesome looking town.

Historic Texas Lunch
108 Lincoln Way W (PA Route 30)
Chambersburg, PA 17201

Dirty Frank's Hot Dog Palace

A new addition to the "why the hell isn't there one of these here" department.

Thom Lessner -of awesome paintings & sweatheart fame- designed a killer logo for his sister's new hot dog restaurant in Colombus, Ohio that's filled with his paintings and serves all kinds of hot dogs jammed full of bacon and pulled pork. They also have a full bar stocked with Ohio, Pennsylvania & New York beers as well as root beer floats made with Frotsop root beer from Springfield, Ohio.



This is totally the kind of place I dream about every day... Old school and modern at the same time, everything house made with fresh ingredients, and a big heap of respect for the history of hot dogs and diner style food.

They also seem to have found the perfect balance of over the top greasy delicious food and healthier stuff, including vegetarian versions of all their dogs.

If someone dropped one of these in Philadelphia it would blow all those half-assed faux-retro restaurants out of the water.

Read more at Serious Eats
Check out their site & menu at Dirtyfrankscolombus.com

Photos courtesy of Harold LaRue and Jen Killius

Oyster House

I admit, I liked the old Sansom St. Oyster bar.It was a little dirty and kind of slow, but the happy hour smelts and 1$ oysters really hit the spot. The decor was beautiful like an old oyster bar should be.

But okay I really really really enjoyed my experience at the new Oyster House. I'm actually really glad it's still an oyster bar, it's nice to be able to go and get oysters somewhere in Philly year round. Whoever is running the show is doing a good job. Super attentive staff that is very informative. The antique oyster plates hanging on the painted brick wall offsets the modern stuff which equals, charming. The oystercracker bowls were all filled to the brim as well as the horseradish containers. The drinks were yummy, and they still have 1$ oyster hour from 5-7 weekdays.

The oysters, awesome, served with vinegar and cocktail sauce. The food, yummy not to fancy but well done. The restaurant also was loud and echoey with conversation, which took getting used to but ended up being really fun and pleasant. Made me feel like I was in a cafeteria/steakhouse, in a good way.

Im going back.

Oyster House
1516 Sansom St
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 567-7683

Texas Weiners

Texas Weiners have nothing to do with Texas and everything to do with New Jersey.

In fact that "chili" you've been eating all these years - especially if you live on the eastern half of the united states - is actually a variation on Greek Bolognese sauce.

Read more at Serious Eats...
And watch this awesome Texas Weiner commercial-

Lunch at Del Posto

32 dollars for 3 courses at Del Posto? Really?

The bread was delicious, especially with a side of nice creamy lard to spread on it. Herb salad & octopus appetizer were decent but not super exciting. Steak was nice and simple, the "roman ribs" were OK but sort of boring. We also split the garganelli bolognese which was incredible. Pasta is definitely the way to go here.

The chocolate torta with sea salt and stratiatella gelato was fantastic. Restaurant dessert more often than not bores the hell out of me- especially on dumbed-down lunch prix fixe menus.

It's sort of strange for the first impression of such a grandiose restaurant to be a cheapo lunch prix fixe. But it's a great deal-
and looking at the full menu you realize it's just a small taste of what goes on. Good enough to want to go back for dinner.

Tijuana dog

Latest hot dog painting & post over at Serious Eats. If you missed last week I did a post about Flo's in Maine, and crowned it the country's best hot dog which got a bunch of people angry.

Mexican hot dogs are really, really good and I haven't seen them anywhere in Philly other than SPTR. There's gotta be someone cranking them out of a tacqueria somewhere, or at least there should be.

In Los Angeles they've been shutting down and arresting mexican hot dog vendors, even putting them in jail, because apparently cooking the dog with raw bacon wrapped around it (the bacon gets fully cooked with the dog on the grill) violates health code. Sounds more to me like an excuse to round up mexicans. Watch this video about the controversy featuring Drew Carey.