Bridgeport HDJ Review - Maple Valley Meats

Maple Valley Meats reminds you a lot of those general stores/restaurants your find in some of the West Virginia state parks in terms of the appearance, layout, and type of food offered up. They seem to do a little bit of everything here, from meat processing to a restaurant to a mini grocery store. Maple Valley Meats offers up daily meal specials that bring in a steady crowd from the nearby industrial park as well as other business in this area near the Harrison/Taylor county lines on Route 50. The home cooked food is terrific, but the hot dogs here are not as good as they could be.

The hot dogs chime in at $1.50 a pop, which is a little high, but considering the rising cost of just about everything these days I would say it's to be expected. They come in what I call "bare minimum" format: chili, mustard, and onions. Slaw is available only if you ask for it, and then it costs about .25 cents extra.

The real problem is in the slaw --labeled as "Amish Cole Slaw"-- which by itself isn't bad at all. Personally, I happen to really like just about anything carrying the "Amish" moniker (namely macaroni salad). The cabbage has a medium coarseness, as do the slivers of carrot mixed in. The dressing of the slaw is rather sweet, with only a trace of tanginess. The dressing is overly abundant...as in runny. By itself, it's delicious. Put it on a hot dog, however, and your WVHD just became a pile of mush.

The chili has the pronounced taste of a tomato base, most likely ketchup. The color leans a bit on the reddish side, which would be a give away to even the most novice hot dog enthusiast. The ground beef is of a medium texture with an overall flavor that tastes okay at best. The chili sauce is --like the slaw dressing-- runny. Accompanied with the water logged weenie, the buns fall apart along the bottom. It may be a result of the overload of toppings, which can kill a good WVHD.

I did order some fries with my order, which were your typical frozen shoestring fries. What I was a little more surprised by was that I was given packets of Hunt's ketchup, versus Heinz that you seemingly get just about anywhere else. In my personal opinion I don't think there is anything that compares to Heinz ketchup.

Maple Valley Meats is a fine establishment for anything but hot dogs. I'll have to rate it at two and a half weenies. They definitely need some attention to detail in the hot dog area, but I think they have more irons in the fire than to worry about establishing themselves as a HDJ.