Second Chance Review: Frostop

Actually, this is a third chance review. A while back, Stanton gave the restaurant that arguably has Huntington's most iconic and memorable landmark (the spinning mug o' root beer) on it a lukewarm review. In my first ever review for WVhotdogs.com, I was even less kind to Frostop. While I praised them for everything from bbq sandwiches to root beer to crinkle-cut fries, I ripped them a new one in terms of hot dog quality.

In order to help me give them one last reprieve from weenie purgatory and an outside shot at a weenie award, I enlisted The Film Geek, a local independent blogger (when did that term stop being an oxymoron, by the way?) and good friend of WVhotdogs.com, who is on record as being a big fan of Frostop's hot dogs.

The original plan was for TFG to explain to me what Stanton and I were missing about the wiener offerings at the 'top while I snarled unconvinced at both he and their soggy upside-down dogs (they put the sauce under the weenie).

Things did not go as planned. TFG didn't have to say a word to sell me on the fact that Frostop was actually capable of making a good dawg when they put their mind to it. The weenie spoke for itself.

It turns out that one of two things happened: either we caught them on bad days last summer or they actually have made an effort to improve the quality of their hot dogs (I guess and hope that the former is the case).

The sauce, while still awkwardly placed directly on the bun, seemed thicker and seasoned with more salt and chili powder than last time. A bit mild for my tastes, but a noticeable improvement from last year.

The bun and weenie were good 'n fresh, as is expected for all Huntington dogs.

The biggest miss last time around was the cole slaw. In '06, it tasted of something that was made in Carolina for a barbeque sandwich, put in a cracked Coleman cooler, and driven to Huntington via back roads and two-lane state highways. My wife, who is in possession of a very acute palate, speculated that the slaw was probably old and was about ready to be chucked. This time around, however, the slaw was very good. It was rather tart (with still with hints of Miracle Whip), but sweeter and creamier than before. I'm tempted to---as an experiment---get a slawless Sam's spicy sauce dog and put some of this slaw on it to see what happens when tart meets heat (sounds like hot dog blog fodder for a slow month this autumn).

Overall, I'm going to bump Frostop up to a 3.5 weenie rating based on the overall vibe of the joint and the improvement of the product. If this had been the only review, It might have gone as high as 4.5, but consistency is a must for a truly great WV hot dog and, unless my next few visits are great, Frostop has to remain a B-list HDJ for the time being.