Search for the Perfect Dog

Last weekend (April 22-23) I went to visit friends in Chicago. I went to have sort of a final fling of food in the windy city, and what happened next was probably one of the best days I've spent in that town. The great search for the Chicago "Dragged Through the Garden" Hot Dog.

A Chicago Style Hot Dog is more than just a Hot Dog; it's a taste sensation with the perfect blend of toppings. So, what exactly is a Chicago Dog? A Chicago Style Hot Dog is a steamed all beef Hot Dog topped with yellow mustard, bright green relish, onions, tomato, pickle spear, sport peppers and a dash of celery salt served in the all-important steamed poppyseed bun.

Saturday started out normally with a "light" breakfast at the Blue Angel and then some fun t-shirt shopping. Eventually Greg, Kimber and I were ready to start the search.

Our first stop was The Wiener's Circle downtown. There was limited seating but the atmosphere was truly downtown Chicago. The dog was pretty good, but with limited amounts of relish and mustard. The dog had all the components however. Even though the bun was a little stale, on our scale of 1 to 5, Wiener's Circle received a 3. Not bad for our first stop.

Second stop was Wolfy's on Peterson. I have driven past this establishment many times, but never had the opportunity to try out the cuisine. As it was, probably best that I hadn't. Wolfy's bun was soggy, the dog had very little snap and was a little overcooked but had good flavor. The onion was "a bit off" according to K but the celery salt seemed to be just right. My tomato still had the "butt" end on it so that was a negative for me. Still in all, they did have Green River soda and the cool sign with the giant frank on a fork. They managed to come out with a 2 dog rating from the three of us.

Third in line was U Lucky Dawg (formerly Flukey's). I have to say that I do love mustard -- but not THAT much!! Besides being drowned in French's, the dog was overdone, not enough relish, soggy dill spear, and onions were not evenly distributed enough for us OCD folks. They did have some kitch factor and a table-side mini-jukebox, but for all that, the dog was just not good enough. Only receiving a rating of one, U Lucky Dawg - not so lucky.

Number four stop was a place that Greg had heard alot about - Bill's Drive In. Unfortunately, the worst stop on the tour. The bun wasn't even poppy seed - it was a plain old stale white bun! Relish was pale, not enough onion, too much mustard, not enough celery salt, and the dog was over-cooked, again. Even for $1.74 (the cheapest place on the tour) the dill pickle, peppers, and grilled onion were all extra! How dare they!? This was our least favorite stop so far, so an appropriate ZERO was the score.

Next stop was probably the cutest named hot dog stand in Evanston called Mustard's Last Stand. The food was probably pretty good for not being in the city, so just a few comments. Not enough poppy seeds on the bun for some, some snap to the dog that was juicy but just not hot enough. The missing celery salt really brought down the score for this one. Oh, and I got the tomato butt end again, what's up with that?? All in all it was a cute spot for the neighborhood kids to get ice cream, but the Chicago dog didn't quite cut it. Our score? Two.

It was probably a good idea to save SuperDawg for last. Arguably the most famous and kitchy restaurant in the city, SuperDawg had it all. Car hop service (even at your picnic table!), super smell, awesome packaging, super kitch, and above all, outstanding customer service. You just knew when you pressed the button and you hear Flaurie's voice on the squeaky speaker, "Hiya! Thanks fer stoppin'!" that you're about the have a religious hot dog experience. The Superdawg comes in it's own box and is lounging inside with a hearty helping of Superfries. The bun was steamed but not soggy, good fluorescent relish, mustard, onion, a nice snappy pickle and plenty of peppers. Unfortunatley, the celery salt was missing and the tomatoes were in wedges and were green. The only reason this place did not get a perfect rating. We also ordered a Whoopski dawg to share. This is a polish sausage on a big bun with barbecue sauce and grilled onion. Pretty tasty, I have to say. Oh, and the chocolate malts aren't bad either, right Kimber? We all got cute plastic cups with Maurie and Flaurie on them and Kimber even got a t-shirt!! Which came in a Superdawg package! It was truly awesome. Our score was 4 out of the perfect 5.

So as you can imagine, by this time it's about 5:00 pm and we are stuffed full. So if you're going to Chicago to have one last hot dog fling, don't waste your time with imitations. We suggest Wiener's Circle and Superdawg as the definitive places to check out for all hot dog needs. Oh, and also Strange Cargo for making our own personally designed t-shirts.

So thank you so much to Greg (for the evaluation cards, driving, and paying), and to Kimber for slicing and making me laugh so hard I wanted to puke (but not in a coyote's mouth) -- from the bottom of my pure beef heart. Nette.