In the midst of all of the many diverse food offerings at the Flatwoods exit of I79 sits a little sign that attempts to direct part of the voluminous traffic that exits there to a little dairy bar/HDJ a mile and a half up Rt 19. It worked on me.Flatwods has a truck stop (which, amazingly, has great Mexican food) and all the fast food staples you'd expect (Wendy's, McDonalds, Subway, etc.) but there's not a decent hot dog joint to be found. The Spot (I know, it sounds like it's missing an adjective) is an oasis in the otherwise hot dog barren desert of the Flatwoods mini-metroplex. A nice little place that does a nice job with hot dogs.
The concrete block building is reminiscent of Kenny's down in West Hamlin, except with a little more of a country vibe (including rocking chairs on a makeshift front porch), and I found myself hoping beyond hope that the hot dogs would be as good as Kenny's. I was disappointed, but only a little.
I was glad when I saw the cook pop the buns into a steamer (a sure sign of hot dog excellence) 
and the slaw and chili also looked good from the distance of the drive-thru window. When I got my hot dog and opened it up I found very nice looking slaw served in a heaping-helping sitting atop an equally generous portion of chili. When I tasted the chili I could not help but notice that it looked and tasted just like that at the Gassaway Dairy Queen. It made me wonder if the two HDJs shared a common owner or at least a common vendor. The slaw, though, was different. A little sweeter and much more finely chopped. The weenie was also like the GDQ; small-caliber but tasty. Onions, if they were there, were so finely chopped they could not be detected. The whole dog was wonderfully messy, and the wax paper wrapping made it wonderfully gooey as well.
and the slaw and chili also looked good from the distance of the drive-thru window. When I got my hot dog and opened it up I found very nice looking slaw served in a heaping-helping sitting atop an equally generous portion of chili. When I tasted the chili I could not help but notice that it looked and tasted just like that at the Gassaway Dairy Queen. It made me wonder if the two HDJs shared a common owner or at least a common vendor. The slaw, though, was different. A little sweeter and much more finely chopped. The weenie was also like the GDQ; small-caliber but tasty. Onions, if they were there, were so finely chopped they could not be detected. The whole dog was wonderfully messy, and the wax paper wrapping made it wonderfully gooey as well.
Flatwoods sits at the geographic center of West Virginia and it would have been a poetic victory if The Spot had delivered with a perfect WVHD, but it just misses the mark. Still, give The Spot a 4 1/2 Weenie rank for its obvious attention to hot dog detail (except they offer ketchup on the "everything" dog) and the quality of the product and the atmosphere of the HDJ.
Hot dog stands are among the few places where unpainted cinder block=quality.
ReplyDelete