Martinsburg HDJ Review - Dogs 11

For years we have been hoping to find a real WVHDJ in the Eastern Panhandle, and recently an Associate Weenie Wonk stumbled upon a place that gave us hope that we'd finally found it. Dogs 11, a self-described Artisan Hot Dog Joint has on its menu a "WV Classic Dog" with the following description: "This WV staple is an All-Natural Dog smothered in our homemade chili sauce, topped with our creamy homemade slaw, diced onions, and yellow mustard." Sounds good in theory, but there is often a big difference between theory and practice. 

The hot dog bun is big. Too big. Dogs 11 bakes their own buns and they are oversized to fit some of the other, more full-bodied hot dogs they sell like the Salsalito Dog (full of cheese and salsa) or the Fritatta Dog (cheese, mushroom, onions and bacon), but they are too big for a WVHD. The chili was dry (like most EP dogs we've found) but the slaw was moist enough to make up for it. The slaw is waaaay to coarse, though, as are the onions.  Fans of natural-casing weenies will be glad to know this one has that snap, but as real WVHD fans know, it's an unnecessary added frill if the other toppings aren't up to snuff.  Overall, this is just an effort to make a WVHD with inappropriate ingredients. 

But it is an effort, and for that, we will award Dogs 11 a 3.5 Weenie ranking, mainly because it's so rare to find anything like a real WVHD east of Keyser.