South Charleston HDJ Review - Nina's Hot Spot

Sitting by itself between McCorkle Avenue and 2nd Avenue on the aptly named Short Street, Nina's Hot Spot is the latest incarnation in a location that has hosted dozens of different businesses over the years, all of them some version of a bar. We had already taken note of the new place and its hot dog signs  but thought it best to wait to see if the business had legs before scheduling a Weenie Wonk visit. But after getting a tip from a couple of readers that the hot dogs were legit, we decided to check it out. 

And we're glad we did. 

Now we typically shy away from hot dog joints that operate inside gambling parlors, and a business with a  woman's first name and "Hot Spot" is usually a dead giveaway that it's primary focus is gambling, but a look inside the front door showed a comfortable lounge-ish space with a long bar. The gambling machines were there alright, but they didn't dominate the room like they do in most mini-casinos. And this day at lunchtime, no gamblers were present.

We knew from the sign outside that hot dogs were on the menu, but once inside it wasn't clear if there were any other kitchen offerings. We saw no menus, but when we asked the bartender for hot dogs he quickly took our order. Two please, with chili, slaw, mustard and onions. 

On this day lunch service was a one-man operation, but that didn't slow us down much. In a few minutes our hot dogs were delivered, sitting two abreast inside a styrofoam clamshell with a foil liner. Immediately we noticed fleck of green in the slaw, a tell-tale indicator that it was house-made (food service slaw is made from mostly cabbage cores and is therefore white, chunky and tough). A quick taste confirmed it; finely chopped, sweet and creamy. 

The chili was savory and its texture was perfect. It lacked much spice, but still paired well with the slaw. The all-beef weenie was lightly grilled and obviously good quality. 

The bun brought both bad news and good. The bad was that it was lightly toasted instead of steamed. The good was that the bartender said he toasted the bun because it had just come out of the refrigerator and he didn't want to serve a cold bun. This kind of intentionality and care goes a long way in our book.

The overall heft of the hot dog was satisfying and it was quite delicious. Long-time readers know that we can't give Five Weenies to an HDJ that doesn't steam its buns, but that was all that held this hot dog down. We'll give Nina's a strong 4.5 Weenie score.