WV Hot Dog Trail - To the Capital City and Up The River

The West Virginia Hot Dog Trail is a publication of the WV Hot Dog Blog and will provide food and culture tourists with a literal roadmap with which to explore the state's best hot dog joints (HDJs). The Trail will be revealed in its entirety on National Hot Dog Day, July 21, but we'll be releasing highlights and snippets of the route every couple of days beginning July 15. This is the third post in this series:

The Capital City

Leaving Nitro, we have one more stop before we breach the city limits of Charleston, and that is
Ridgeview BBQ in Institute. Located right across Rt. 25 from the WV State University Campus - this BBQ joint also offers great hot dogs with smoky chili. Time your visit well, though, since they aren't open weekends. 

Continuing on Rt. 25 into Charleston, the next HDJ you will encounter is the venerable Huskey's Dairy Bar. Huskey's has been selling delicious hot dogs on this corner for decades, and they are still just as good today. If you have room, make sure you get one of their famous chocolate shakes too. 

You barely need to get back in the car to drive one block to Hot Diggity Dogs. When this place opened a few years back, our Weenie Wonks found it lacking, but a re-review in 2019 revealed that they had upped their game and now is a serious contender. Take our advice, though, and don't get the yellow slaw. Their regular slaw is superior, and you'll soon have a chance to try the real deal. 

Now let's head downtown, shall we? We love hot dog joints that are serious about hot dogs, and Super Weenie is very serious about hot dogs. In fact, it is their motto, printed on the door of the HDJ. You can't find a better, more authentically West Virginia hot dog anywhere. Chili is great, slaw is perfection and everything else is just great. You can get other styles of hot dogs at Super Weenie too, but who cares? 

There are other places in Charleston to get a good hot dog, but we've had the best, so it's time to hit the road again, this time up the river to Marmet. We told you to skip the yellow slaw earlier, and this is why: Chum's Hot Dogs is the only place to get authentic yellow slaw hot dogs. Yellow slaw is sweeter that the white kind. That sweetness means that it needs a spicier chili to really bring out the flavor. Chum's accomplishes this well. Better than anyone. Period.

Next: Heading Down South