Best Hot Dog Eateries in USA
The hot dog is one of those foods that’s almost impossible to screw up. You blast some heat on it, slap it on some bread or roll, dash on some mustard (spicy for me please), and ring the dinner bell. However there’s a huge distinction between not messing things up and also transforming it into a gourmet-changing, spiritual food extravaganza experience. And also there are great deals of hotdog locations and eateries in America that are transforming the quaint hotdog into a full on heavenly experience.
The seasonal overlooked buddy to the hamburger, the hot dog occasionally plays the poor step brother roll, charring at the rear of the grill while juicy all star hamburgers are taken up as soon as they attacked the appropriate temperature. But there’s a scientific…dare I say an artistic, behind the scenes in creating the excellence of the hot-dog-eating experience.
Best Local (NY-NJ) Hot Dog Eateries
Nathan’s Famous, Coney Island, N.Y.
A trip to the original stand in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, however, is a pilgrimage that everyone should make at least once. Stand in the same line that millions of others have over the years, place your order, and snap into the perfect embodiment of a summer day: the sea, the boardwalk, and an original Nathan’s hot dog. There’s nothing else like it.
Max’s Famous Hot Dogs, Long Branch, NJ
A hot dog joint so legendary it has its own Wikipedia page, this Long Branch institution, dominated by a long counter, has been going strong since 1928. Max’s pork and beef quarter-pound dogs come from Jersey-based Schickhaus, and they spend some time developing a great well-done crust on a well-seasoned griddle before they’re tucked into a toasted bun that’s several inches too short. The toppings really run the gamut; you can opt for a simple squirt of mustard or choose from options including spicy or sweet relish, chili (the traditional beef-and-bean variety), cheese, sauerkraut, bacon, coleslaw, and chopped onions. Whatever you do, make sure you sample the onion rings and their super-crispy sweet potato fries.
The traditional New Jersey Italian hot dog is notoriously difficult to perfect, but at the unassuming, order-at-the-window Tommy’s, they’ve got it down to a science. It starts with a deep-fried skinless frank from the inimitable Best Provisions, tucked into a quarter of a light and crusty loaf made from pizza dough. Slow-cooked onions and peppers come next, and then the real standout: thin-cut, deep-fried potato slices that aren’t overwhelmingly crispy, but not soggy either. It’s surprisingly not greasy at all; just a perfectly balanced Italian hot dog, one you’ll be glad you discovered.
The no-frills, counter-service Jimmy Buff’s, with locations in West Orange and Kenilworth, is a New Jersey legend. Since 1932, they’ve been serving a distinct, somewhat bizarre creation called the Italian hot dog. Hot dogs, onions, peppers, and sliced potato coins are all tossed into the deep-fryer together, and the whole mess is piled into half-moon shaped “pizza bread” (think thick pita); most people opt for the Double, with two dogs. It’s then topped with your choice of ketchup, mustard, or relish. It’s one of the unhealthiest, greasiest foods you can eat, but it’s undoubtedly delicious, and undoubtedly Jersey.
Famous Lunch has been in business in Troy since 1932, and they’re still selling their legendary little Helmbold’s hot dogs: four inches long and full of spicy, garlicky flavor, cooked on a griddle that’s nearly as old as the restaurant. Grab a seat at the counter and order a few dogs (they won’t set you back much, just 60 cents apiece), and make sure you get them topped with mustard, onions, and their classic Zippy sauce, filled with big chunks of beef and bursting with cumin and paprika.
Folks come to this waterfront Rochester institution for the nostalgia and stay for the timeless fries, hamburgers, and hot dogs. It opened in 1956, so that distinct Happy Days atmosphere is in fact purely authentic. Schaller’s specialty is the upstate hot dog variety known as White Hots: fat natural-casing dogs comprised of pork, beef, and veal that are made by local butcher Zweigle’s. Top it with some of their meat-based “hot sauce,” mustard, and onions, grab a handful of pickles, and you’re in summer vacation heaven. Two other locations have since opened, but the lakeside outpost is the one to visit.
On the side of an unassuming road, in the unassuming little town of Mamaroneck, in New York’s Westchester County,, sits an odd, pagoda-shaped hot dog stand. This is Walter’s, and the hot dogs here haven’t changed since Walter Warrington opened his first stand nearby in 1919. The copper-roofed pagoda was built in 1928, and is currently on the county’s inventory of historic places. But it’s the hot dogs that have really made Walter’s so legendary. Warrington devised the recipe for these dogs himself, and to this day they’re still split down the middle, basted in a secret sauce as they grill, placed into a fluffy toasted bun, and topped with homemade mustard. There’s nothing else quite like Walter’s.
Even if Rutt’s Hut, located in blue-collar Clifton, served their trademark Ripper, a pork-and-beef Thumann’s link that’s deep-fried in beef fat until it rips apart, out of the back of a minivan, it would still be one of the country’s most delicious hot dogs. The fact that this roadside shack has not only a counter to end all counters amid its stand-up dining room, but also an adjoining tap room where you can drink cheap beer and chat with old-timers and fellow pilgrims, propels Rutt’s Hut to legendary status. Whether you order an “In-And-Outer” (just a quick dunk in the oil), a Ripper, a well-done “Weller,” or the crunchy, porky, almost-overcooked “Cremator,” make sure you get it “all the way”: topped with mustard and a spicy, sweet, onion- and cabbage-based relish.
Ted’s, with eight locations in the Buffalo area and one more in Tempe, Arizona (of all places), has been charcoal-broiling hot dogs since 1927, serving them alongside great milkshakes and perfect onion rings, washed down with an ice-cold Crystal Beach Loganberry. The cooked-to-order dogs (available in regular-sized, foot-long, and jumbo all-beef varieties) get a nice char from the charcoal, and you’ll be missing out if you don’t top it with Ted’s famous hot chili sauce, based on a recipe brought from Greece by founder Ted Liaros. It’s sweet and spicy, and they thankfully also sell it by the bottle.
While some hot dog sellers are secretive about the origins of their product, the folks behind Bark, located in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood (with a second location recently opened in Greenwich Village), are more than happy to let you know where they source their hot dogs (and all the rest of their ingredients, right down to the cabbage used in the sauerkraut). Upstate New York’s Hartmann’s Old World Sausage worked with them to create a stellar dog, which gets a basting of lard butter as it’s browning on the flat top before being placed into a grilled, buttered split-top bun from Pepperidge Farm. Toppings stay fairly traditional, but one of our guilty pleasures is their bacon Cheddar dog, which tops the dog with a sprinkling of diced Nueske’s bacon, a house-made Cheddar sauce, and diced pickled onions. All condiments are made in-house, except for the ketchup, mustard, and mayo. “Some things are just American classics,” they explain on their menu.
Since opening on St. Marks Place in 2001, Crif Dogs has been the standard-bearer for unique and exciting hot dogs in New York, and they now have a second location in Brooklyn. No offering sums up their “kitchen sink” approach to the hot dog better than the Good Morning, which transforms a hot dog into one of the great breakfast sandwiches: It starts with a bacon-wrapped, deep-fried hot dog (Crif’s claim to fame), and adds a slice of melty American cheese and a fried egg. Other insane creations include the Garden State (wrapped in Taylor ham and sopped with chopped pepperoncini, American cheese, and mustard) and the Tsunami (bacon-wrapped and topped with teriyaki, pineapple, and green onions).
#1 on the 2015 List…Katz Deli, NYC
