Charleston Area Dairy Queen Review - St. Albans

St. Albans and Nitro are sometimes called "Twin Cities" because they sit on opposite banks of the Kanawha River and are roughly the same size. Just like human siblings there is often a competitive spirit between the two towns, so I wondered which town's Dairy Queen had the best hot dogs and took it upon myself to investigate. The St. Albans DQ is on Sixth Avenue, caddy corner from the IGA and just down the street from Mayberry's. It is an old restaurant that has been added on to several times, but the original tiny walk-in counter area is still where you place your order. The menu board has three hot dog choices listed: Steamed, Toasted and Super Dog. I asked the difference and the very friendly lady behind the counter told me that "steamed" was a regular hot dog, "toasted" was a grilled New England Style bun (she didn't elaborate on the "Super Dog", I assume because it should have been self-explanatory). With visions of Timmy's Snack Shack dancing in my head I ordered the "toasted" version with everything (except, of course, ketchup). Well, I can report that Timmy's bun has nothing to fear from this version. It was not carefully grilled to a perfect brown color like Timmy's. It didn't taste as freshly prepared as Timmy's. It wasn't crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside like Timmy's. It made me wish I had ordered a "steamed." The chili was standard DQ, the slaw was hardly there at all. The weenie was way overcooked. The onions were chopped into huge pieces. Not a good effort. Not a good hot dog. So Nitro easily wins the DQ hot dog competition over its twin city. Not even close.