Davis Hot Dog Joint - Wicked Wilderness Pub 'n' Parlor

We discovered what might be the highest HDJ in the state. Both elevation-wise and price-wise.

If the Town of Davis' claim of being the highest incorporated town is accurate (and we have no reason not to believe them), and if there are no other hot dog joints in town (we couldn't find any) then indeed the Wicked Wilderness Pub n Parlor must be tops -- as it were-- in the State of West Virginia.

This recently-opened establishment has basic bar food and drinks and is an overall nice place. Located right next door to Sirriani's Cafe, which previously might have been the only bonafide restaurant in Davis (and a little more previously it might have been the only real restaurant in all of Tucker County), the WWPnP is in a good location to catch some of the the hungry hordes that are routinely standing outside waiting for a table there. The Saturday evening we were there they seemed ready for a large influx of customers with plenty of waitstaff, but business was slack early on.

I really wasn't there to do a hot dog review, but when I saw the lovely words "West Virginia style" under the "Wicked Hot Dog" title, I knew I had to check it out. At $6.50, this would certainly be one of the highest-priced hot dogs we've reviewed - a fitting companion to its high elevation, I guess. I hoped it would be enough to satisfy my dinner-sized appetite.

When my hot dog arrived, it was easy to see why it was so pricey - the thing was YUGE and I did not worry about leaving hungry. The weenie was as large as any I have encountered, and as a bonus, was quite tasty. It would have gone well as the centerpiece of a sausage-centric entree with a couple of vegetable sides. To give you a sense of the size of this monster, look at the photo: The bun was actually a standard-size hoagie bun, though, so it lacked the soft feel that one looks for in a proper WVHD bun. It also lacked any substance in that critical space under the weenie, so all of the ingredients started falling out of the bottom with the first bite.

The slaw looked great, finely chopped and liberally applied (yes, you anti-carrot people, it has orange flecks. Why are you SO against color in your slaw?), and tasted good if not great. That chili though...

The chili, or rather I should say "chili," because it was not really chili. It was browned ground beef with almost no seasoning whatsoever. Maybe it was a bad batch, but it was absolutely the most bland tasting chili-like substance I have ever had on a hot dog. With a name like "Wicked Hot Dog" I was really expecting something spicy, but nothing could have been further from the truth.

The bottom line is that, despite the menu's claim, this was not really a West Virginia style hot dog. It was an attempt at a meal-sized facsimile of a WVHD but fails primarily due to the lack of seasoning in the "chili," but also because of the overall size and lack of a real bun. We'll give it a 3 Weenie score for effort, but we'll keep looking for a real hot dog in the Davis/Thomas/Canaan Valley area.