Charleston Area HDJ Review - Good Stuff Pantry

You just never know. Good WVHDs sometimes live in the most unlikely places. That's why I wasn't too skeptical when someone wrote and suggested I visit Good Stuff Pantry in Cross Lanes to try their hot dog offerings. I've stopped by Good Stuff Pantry a few times over the years to grab a cold drink or maybe some gum, but I never realized they had hot dogs or any other fast food. It's a typical W. Va. roadside convenience store, through and through, not a place you would think of for hot dogs. But I have found my readers, for the most part, to be astute judges of hot dog quality so I didn't think twice about making a special trip to check it out.

The place is easy to find; just go to Cross Lanes, go straight through the stoplight and keep going until you think you surely must have missed it and it will be there on the right. It looks like it might be closed; it's looked that way for 15 years. Inside, it's one of those utilitarian places with concrete floors, just enough shelving for the basics and large beer and pop cooler along one entire wall. An old meat display case stands empty beside the cash register. It is behind this case from where the hot dogs eminate.

"Everything" includes chili, slaw, mustard and onions. Yay. With no inside seating all dogs are wrapped to go in aluminum foil, a good choice that makes for a nice, gooey hot dog in no time at all. The weight of the dog is nice and it is highly piled with rich, meaty chili and sweet, finely chopped, creamy slaw. Nothing overly special about either but they work well together. The weenie is good and the bun is excellent. Put it all together and it adds up to a solid four-and-a-half weenie ranking.

This is well-planned and executed WVHD, the kind you'd like to introduce to your friends from Pennsylvania or Ohio to show them what West Virginia is all about.

A fitting hot dog to be honored as this blog's one-hundredth review!