Charleston HDJ Review - M&M Sandwich Mart

M&M Sandwich Mart has been just about my favorite place for sandwiches for several years now. This little market and deli sits in a very convenient place in Kanawha City, has easy storefront parking and sells the freshest Boar's Head Meats in the area. They also don't skimp on helpings (they put a good half pound of liverwurst on my favorite of their sandwiches), so I was pleased when I drove by recently and saw hot dogs advertised on their marquee sign along McCorkle Avenue. I thought that with their demonstrated commitment to quality that a decent hot dog would be a given.

I was half right.

Allow me to begin at the end: The hot dog tasted pretty good. Probably 3 Weenies worth of good.

The problem is that these are self-serve dogs. I was hugely disappointed to find when I went in that the dogs were not going to be prepared by the deli chef behind the counter, but by me on the sales counter! A cutesy little Boar's Head hot dog cart sitting on the counter had two kinds of weenies sitting in pools of their own filth, a tub of lukewarm and mediocre tasting chili and a chilled container of so-so coleslaw sitting alongside. A bag of room temperature Heiner's buns sat there waiting for me and anyone else to paw around inside to pull loose the proper number of buns to begin the assembly process.

In M&M's defense, the owner was standing there behind the counter and offered to help me, but I was disinclined to submit to his assistance.

Since it is my standing rule that self-service hot dog stand gets an automatic 1 point deduction, M&M only nets out a 2 Weenie rating.

Still the place to go for my beloved liverwurst on rye, but unless it can run with the big dogs and have its hot dogs fixed by the professionals behind the counter, M&M needs to stay out of the hot dog business.