Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joints - Mr C's


"Home of the Famous Yellow Slaw" brags the sign outside of Mr. C's Hot Dogs. Sitting across McCorkle Avenue from Galaxy Lanes (Formerly Robin Lanes) in upper Kanawha City, this little restaurant offers some pretty tasty dogs.

On my most recent trip I got one hot dog with yellow slaw and one with regular slaw to compare (see photo). The "Famous Yellow Slaw" is an enigmatic concoction and Mr. C's guards the recipe like a military secret. It seems to be basic cole slaw mixed with yellow mustard, but it is much sweeter than regular slaw. After carefully tasting the differences between the two I think I have concluded that the difference is honey-mustard. People (Yankees) who like sweet relish on a dog would probably enjoy the yellow slaw.

The regular slaw dog is very good. They wrap them up in foil so a take out order is going to be pretty gooey by the time you get where you're going. Price is great too, at $1 a dog.

Now the bad news: This place looks like it's on its last legs. The Mr. C's in North Charleston closed a couple of years ago (no doubt run off by the competition) and I understand there is another location in Putnam County, but I'm not sure where it is. This location has all the signs of imminent demise, including a hand-lettered sign on the door that says "Cash Only" and one on the counter reading "Deep Fryer is Out of Order." The potato chip rack had exactly three bags of chips on it. If you want to try a good "Famous Yellow Slaw" WVHD in Kanawha City, my advice is to hurry.

No comments: