Charleston HDJ Review - Intermezzo Cafe

The $130 million Clay Center for The Arts and Sciences in downtown Charleston is often talked about in very negative terms by a large segment of our fair city’s population. The Clay Center often gets criticized on the following grounds:

1. It cost way too much money to build and the shows it hosts cost way too much.

2. While it looks pretty good, the overall quality of what is inside runs from really bad to mediocre.

3. Because of the poor value it provides the community, it leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths

But enough complaining. Inside the Clay Center sits the Intermezzo Café, which provides snacks and light meals to patrons. Of course, hot dogs must be on the menu or it wouldn’t be here.

Let me say right from the start that the hot dogs are not good for the following reasons:

1. They cost way too much money ($3.00!)
2. While it looked pretty good, what was inside the bun ran from really bad (the weenie) to mediocre (the chili),
3. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

Cosmic, huh?

Seriously though, the hot dog started with a weenie that was quite possible the single worst weenie in the history of WVHotDogs.com. It was so overcooked on one of those hot dog rollers that it was like it was wrapped in leather. It had the chewiness quotient of a Slim Jim but without the taste.

The bun it was on had some promise, being a bit above average in size and a little more substantial that the basic HDJ fare, but it was served stone cold. The chili had some interesting flavor, but the slaw did nothing to compliment it and was virtually tasteless. The mustard was do it yourself from the condiment rack.

I thought long and hard about what to score this train wreck of a hot dog. The chili might warrant a 2 Weenie rating, but I really feel like this is something that shouldn't be eaten by humans and if I were to score it with a positive integer that it might induce some person to risk his or her life, or worse, the safety of their children. This is a bad, bad hot dog . 0.0 Weenies