Charleston HDJ Review - The Daily Dose Cafe

This little coffee shop got its start a few years back peddling coffee with cannabidiol (CBD), trying to
capitalize on the CBD craze. Sitting in a less-than-ideal location along McCorkle Avenue, where you have to go around the block and halfway up the alley to find the parking lot and the main entry, it isn't subject to a lot of walk-in business. Nevertheless, it has survived two setbacks that might have sunk lesser businesses: a 2019 ruling from the FDA that CBD should not be ingested in food and drink (due more to lack of study than any hard evidence that it's harmful), and the COVID19 pandemic. They have succeeded by changing into more of a full-service cafe with delicious breakfast items, sandwiches and a mix of healthy foods and decadent baked treats that pair well with a cup of coffee, now CBD-free. They still sell CBD supplements if you swing that way. 

Over the past few years while they were navigating the tricky waters that life and the FDA created for them, they had some inconsistent hours, but recently they have made a new commitment to their customers by increasing their open days (now Monday-Saturday) and hours (now 7-3 weekedays and 8-2 Saturday). As a way to announce their new hours and attitude they have been running a social media campaign and - in a brilliant stroke of marketing genius - added hot dogs to the menu.

Boasting "homemade chili and slaw" they caught our eye and so we just had to drop in and check them out. Now long-time readers of this blog know that "homemade" doesn't hold any water with our Weenie Wonks (we prefer professionally produced hot dogs), but we know that some of you always seem to think your homemade is better than the rest so we figured we'd give it a shot.

We ordered up and had to wait quite a while for our hot dogs to be made. This is common with places who don't specialize in hot dogs. In skilled and practiced hands, a WV hot dog is a very quick thing to prepare; slop the chili and sling the slaw. But give a newbie the task and they primp and preen, trying to make it pretty and take way too long. We can't fault The Daily Dose for this since they are brand new in the hot dog biz. We can find fault, though, for having ketchup in the list of "everything" toppings. No thank you.

When we did finally get them, our hot dogs were pretty and well made with plenty of toppings. Now we know that you purists out there are going to complain about the two things you always complain about, carrots in the slaw and onions chopped too coarsely. Ya'll are as predictable as Fairmont folks complaining about slaw. We don't mind the carrots and if the onions are mild, we don't mind them being big either. But you do you.

So here's the thing about these hot dogs: While usually a good WV hot dog has to have sweet slaw to offset the spicy and savory chili, this slaw was rather bland but the chili was quite sweet. And it kind of worked. The weenie was obviously high quality and seemed lightly grilled which brought out some flavor and the whole hot dog was very good. The bun was soft and warm if not steamed and as we mentioned before, the onions were a bit large, but overall this was a very good hot dog. 

We're going to give The Daily Dose a strong 4 Weenie score and encourage them the make hot dogs a regular menu item. 

You can find The Daily Dose at 5206 1/2 McCorkle Ave SE, Charleston, WV

(681) 265-3943