Danville HDJ Review - K-Bo's

The land that lies between the greater Charleston area and the hot dog rich land of Logan has long been barren of good HDJs. Recently we received a couple of review suggestions that gave us hope that there was a halfway outpost worth stopping for in Danville.

K-Bo's is a classic roadside ice cream stand where you stand outside and order through a sliding window. In West Virginia, these kinds of places nearly always have hot dogs and we figured that K-Bo's was no exception. We were heartened to see a sign proclaiming a "5 Buck Lunch" consisting of a hot dog, chips and drink and confidently placed our order for one of those, pausing only to ask what "everything" meant. This is where everything went horribly, horribly wrong:

We were handed a paper menu that listed all of K-Bo's hot dog offerings. At the top were "Sunny Buns." Having never heard of a Sunny Bun, I asked the order taker what it was and was told it was a hot dog on a regular bun with Mustard KETCHUP chili, slaw and onions. I looked further down the menu and was initially encouraged to see a "WV Dog" listed but then I saw what K-Bo's thinks is on a WV Hot Dog: Chili, Mustard and Onions! This is not Fairmont! This is Southern West Virginia! It was like we walked into a wrinkle in the time/space continuum or took a wrong turn somewhere.

We of course had to create our own hot dog from the offered toppings. Humiliating.

We waited patiently for our hot dog, hoping that this would be the one that would make for a good stopover on the long trip from Charleston to Logan but after seeing that all-over-the-place menu our hopes were fading faster than Jim Justice's chance of re-election.

Our hot dog arrived in a styrofoam coffin, and upon opening the lid we immediately saw the too-large diced onions crowding the top and completely covering the coleslaw. We were able to excavate a little slaw to sample it but found it pretty tasteless and dry. The chili, likewise, had a flavor that resulted from browning the meat and onions --and maybe a slight taste of chili powder -- but nothing else. If not for the mustard, this hot dog would have been virtually without any flavor at all.

So we'll score K-Bo's a generous 1 1/2 Weenies and continue our search for a stopover HDJ on the road from Charleston to Logan. Maybe Chapmanville?