The WV Hot Dog Trail - The Burbs and Lower Kanawha Valley

The West Virginia Hot Dog Trail is a publication of the WV Hot Dog Blog and will provide food and culture tourists with a literal roadmap with which to explore the state's best hot dog joints (HDJs). The Trail will be revealed in its entirety on National Hot Dog Day, July 21, but we'll be releasing highlights and snippets of the route every couple of days beginning July 15. This is the second post in this series:

Heading East

Our next stop on the Trail is Farley's Famous Hot Dogs in Hurricane. We could have stopped at Farley's  original location in Barboursville, but the extra few miles will give our bodies more time to digest those first three hot dogs of the trip. 

The hot dogs at Farley's are delicious with sauce that is nearly the perfect texture and decent slaw to boot (oh, and this is the last time it'll be called "sauce" for a while - nothing but "chili" ahead until we head back north). It's another drive-in with root beer, too so that's a bonus.

Next, we'll head on down Route 34 all the way to and through Winfield to stop at The Dairy Freeze. The Freeze (as locals call it) feature great tasting weenies and classic tasting Southern W.Va. hot dog chili (see, I told you it would be called "chili") with a little spice and a whole lotta taste. The slaw is a little coarse but tastes great. 

From Winfield we'll stay on the south side of the Kanawha River and travel down the road that used to be Rt. 35 to St. Albans and Bammy's Chili Dogs. Bammy's knows how to make a great WV hot dog. The spicy chili is perfectly balanced by excellent slaw; creamy and sweet and applied in perfect proportion.

Next we'll jump over the Nitro/St. Albans Bridge to the Nitro Dairy Queen, one of two DQs on the trail. Fans of this blog knows that not all DQs are created equal, and the one in Nitro is two cuts above them all, especially since the tragic demise of the Clendenin location in 2015. Here is the first place we'll have to reckon with the issue of the misnamed "English Dog," but fear not, they offer regular buns as well, and the hot dogs are just terrific. 

Next: Heading into the Capital City