Charleston HDJ Review - Sister Act Cafe

Note: This review was performed when Sister Act first opened. Since this review was posted we have revisited their hot dogs and found them to be quite good. See this post for a more recent review. 

In the location formerly occupied by Diana's Capitol Street Cafe, Sister Act Cafe has been open now for a few weeks and was due a visit by your friendly neighborhood Weenie Wonk (I heard that Diana's has moved to a new location, but I'm not sure where).

The motif of the cafe has changed and a bunch of photos hang on one wall of people I would guess to be sisters, and furthermore guess that it would be these sisters who own the cafe. Otherwise there has been few changes: The place still has a few inside seats and the counter/kitchen locations are simple and convenient for a crushing lunchtime business that they are likely to have in this location, and which indeed they were in the midst of when I visited.

Despite the crowd, my order came out quick and the friendly staff made me feel at ease and confident that they might know how to put together a decent WVHD (except they did ask if I wanted ketchup which is often a bad sign).

My two dogs were wrapped nicely in wax paper (the preferred packaging method of WVHotDogs.com) but then were curiously placed into an oversize coffin. When I unwrapped the first hot dog I was a bit dismayed to see the giant pieces of cabbage in the slaw, but otherwise the hot dog looked fine; a good-looking specimen of a Utilitarian Dog.

Beauty is only skin deep, though, and this hot dog lost its beauty about halfway through the first bite. The slaw was dry and almost tasteless, and unfortunately the taste it did possess was bad. The chili was OK, but served in such a small quantity that it too was effectively tasteless. The weenie was marginal. Because of the dry slaw and the lack of any other good flavor I found myself looking for a mustard package to make the second dog edible. I think ketchup might have even improved this thing.

Rarely do I give a 0 Weenie score, but Sister Act Cafe's hot dog this day truly deserves it.