Sunday, April 08, 2007

Fairmont is where its Att's



Many Fairmont locals will, no doubt, recognize this eatery. If not now, since it has changed hands, then perhaps when it was B&L Hot Dogs(I believe I am recalling the name correctly) Located across from what was previously East Fairmont High School, it once served as a popular lunchtime location for the students (East Fairmont HS was probably one of the last schools to have an open campus, thus affording students the opportunity to eat somewhere other than the dreaded cafeteria). The current occupant of this location is Att's Place. The interior is largely as I remember it. Though now it is stylized with NASCAR decoration. There is table seating for about 18 and bar seating for 6 or so.

Offering an assorted menu of road foods including hotdogs, hamburgers, bbq, nachos etc. The primary focus of this eatery is true to the location, hotdogs. Att's serves them up with an assortment of toppings, from the usual fair to the nacho dog. So as to not impose on the nachodog review site, I will keep our attention focused on the WVHD offerings.

The construction of this dog follows the familiar Fairmont formula: basic, boiled wiener+steamed bun+Mustard, onion and chili/sauce. As seems the new trend, it should come as little surprise that Att's serves up a WVHD, slaw is a little extra, but is an option nonetheless. While it seems hard to go wrong with such a combination, with most other HDJ's having a near identical methodology, it puts greater weight on the toppings to set the various vendors apart.

The sauce/chili at Att's seemed uninspired to me, lacking in complex or interesting flavors. Complete with what seemed to be a faint taste of tomato product, most likely due to a 'quick' preparation method. This taste would most likely be blended sufficiently with the other ingredients to be unrecognizable in more simmered sauce. The slaw here seems to have been made more for the purpose of a side dish rather than as a WVHD topping. While the size and texture was proper, it lacked any notable sweetness and had an over abundant portion of carrots; such that when tasted alone, the carrot taste was distinctly evident. The onions were fresh and, like the mustard, were applied in an appropriate amount.

Given that slaw doesn't seem to be a 'normal' topping here, some day to day variation is to be expected. The same may be true for the chili as well, but.... In the end I can only review the sample I have. Which I find unfortunate, as incremental attention to topping details could easily make a respectable WVHD. Att's brings home a 2.5 Weenie rating.

2 comments:

Stanton said...

More encouraging signs of slaw acceptance from North Central! Thanks, Kevin, for your willingness to go above and beyond!

Mike said...

They were far better off when they were B&L. And they were located where Woody's is now. And they had good hot dogs.