Charleston Hot Dog Joint Review - Chaser's Boulevard Cafe

Located in the former Carbon Fuel Building, (now called Boulevard Towers) this little restaurant location has seen many different tenants over the years. Most have had very good food but the parking and other traffic limitations have caused them to go belly up, one by one. The latest incarnation seems to have a better toe-hold than some of the others and here's hoping they stay around a good long time because they offer a good hot dog to office workers on a side of town that has not many other options.

The decor of the place is Coca-Cola Americana, with more Coke trinkets per square inch than most any other place I've seen.

The menu lists a regular hot dog and an all-beef version for a few pennies more. I tried the all-beef and it was a good choice. The weenie was very good indeed. The bun seemed to be pretty much out of the bag and could have used a good steaming but it tasted OK.

The slaw was finely chopped and had a nice flavor but not terribly sweet. It was served in an adequate sized portion but it was just a touch too dry to be perfect. The onions were coarsely chopped.

The chili was remarkable because it had a strong beefy flavor but not much else. It had the midwestern loose-meat texture and I coudn't detect a trace of spice. With the slaw, though, it worked.

Overall Chaser's serves a pretty good hot dog, but not a great one.

Morgantown Hot Dog Joint - Hot Dog Barn

Located just off the main drag through Sabraton, this little hot dog joint has big surprises for WVHD lovers.

Suprise #1 - Even in this far northern location slaw is listed as an optional topping on the menu. Chili, onions and mustard are standard but when I ordered mine with slaw I didn't even get a funny look. This, in a location that is even north of slawless Marion County!

Surprise #2 - The slaw is served in a heaping-helping! I was astounded when I saw the how they piled it on.

Surprise #3 - The slaw is just excellent! It tastes nearly perfect and is a perfect texture. It is as creamy and sweet as any slaw you would find at even a southern W. Va. HDJ.

Surprise #4 - The chili is great. It is just spicy enough to make its presence felt and it is meaty and has enough liquid in it to give it a really good texture.

Surprise # 5 - The bun was steamed to absolute perfection! Even though the dog was served in a coffin it was delightfully gooey and had excellent weight to it.

Surprise # 6 - This hot dog is simply one of the best hot dogs I have found in all of West Virginia!

On the downside, The Hot Dog Barn is one of those little roadside places that is difficult to know when they are open. This is the third time I've stopped and the first time the lights have been on. But I'm very glad I kept trying! This is a great hot dog joint with great hot West Virginia hot dogs!

Since I'm not very familiar with the area I can't give you great directions, but if you get off I68 at the Sabraton exit and head toward town, keep looking to the right and you'll see the Hot Dog Barn just before you get to the Hero Hut. Just look for the six-foot tall hot dog squirting ketchup on his head.

Huntington Area Hot Dog Joints - M & M Dairy Bell

A few months ago, Huntington hosted the West Virginia Hot Dog Festival (Stanton posted his unenthused review here). I, too, attended the event and was particularly taken aback by one entry, M & M Dairy Bell. One minor problem, they are not, technically speaking, located in West Virginia but rather Chesapeake, Ohio. This was the one dawg that Stanton refrained from sampling, but boy, did he miss out.

While the business is located on the wrong side of the river, their hot dogs are all-West Virginia. The sauce. The slaw. The people. They all have a lot more in common with West By God than with the flatlanders of Akron, Columbus, and Toledo.

M & M Dairy Bell is from the old school. It is a small mom 'n pop business located on the main drag in Chesapeake (a suburb of Huntington, located just across the Robert C. Byrd Bridge).
It appears that their specialty (along with ice cream) are foot long dogs, but my appetite was limited when I dropped by, so I stuck with a traditional size weenie.

I ordered a dog with sauce, slaw, onions, and mustard and, upon the dog's arrival to my table, I knew that I was in for a treat.

The bun/weenie were standard Huntington issue. Fresh and tasty.

The sauce (chili to those east of Hurricane) was first-rate. There was lots of loose ground beef in a tomato/chili powder base. It was the right balance of liquid and thick to bathe the weenie in deliciousness. The sauce was on the mild end of things, but much how a veggie korma is the mildest dish at an Indian restaurant, not hot but full of flavor. I would most certainly buy it if it was available at Julian's or Kroger.

The slaw was nicely chopped, creamy, and just sweet enough. There was plenty of it spooned on the sauce and the two interacted quite well.

The atmosphere was what put it over the top. It was small, friendly, and oozing with the charm that one would expect in an old-timey drive-in in Appalachia. The service was top-notch and wait staff was helpful and courteous.

As far as side dishes/non-hot dog options go, the menu looked like pretty much what you would expect for a dairy bar. My wife had a corn dog and crinkle cut fries that she reports were quite tasty and perfectly fried. The ice cream selection seemed diverse and the menu featured local favorites such as a Panther Paw (double cheeseburger with pepper jack) and 'Peakes Pride (bacon cheese fries).

Overall, this is a place that knows exactly what it is and is comfortable with its spot in the Huntington-area food chain and it excels in its niche. In fact, I would say that M & M Dairy Bell is better at what it does than Arthur's or Savannah's and is on par with Rocco's and Jim's (speaking relatively, of course).

Ratings:

I'm not even going to bother to break it down. This is my first (and likely only) 5 weenie review. Now this leads to a dilemma...

This would mean that the best West Virginia hot dog in Huntington is not in West Virginia at all. Now granted, Chesapeake, Ohio is just as West Virginian in character as any other of Huntington's 'burbs. But still, Ohio.

This means one of several things...
1) I should be tried for treason against the state of West Virginia.
2) Some places in Huntington (and yes, even Charleston) need to shape up and restore our pride with some better sauce ASAP.
3) We should ignore arbitrary, artificial political boundaries that were drawn by British and French peers 240 years ago and instead focus on socio-cultural demarcations instead (ie trade the northern panhandle to Ohio in exchange for Lawrence, Gallia, Meigs, and Athens counties).

Whatever the solution may be, you'll find Chris James & family pondering it and many other questions on the wrong side of the river a lot more.

FAQ Added

I added a Frequently Asked Questions page to WVHotDogs.com today.

The Power of The Press

I have been overwhelmed by the response to the article in the Daily Mail! The traffic on this blog and wvhotdogBlog.com has far exceeded what could be reasonably expected to be generated by an article in a paper with the circulation of the Daily Mail. On Wednesday, the day the article was published, traffic on wvhotdogBlog.com went through the roof: over ten times the traffic of any other day in its history. This blog's traffic was about double, but most of the referrals came from wvhotdogBlog.com. Even yesterday, Thanksgiving Day, traffic was still off the charts. The best part is that I received more than a dozen new recommendations. This will help get me through the winter without having to search too hard for lunch. The downside is that I have been so busy answering email that I haven't had time to post anything new. Hopefully things will get back to normal soon and I'll get back to the business of reviews.

Daily Mail Article

I began to recieve a ton of hot dog email this afternoon and had no idea why. The I opened the Daily Mail and found out. Read the article here.

I was interviewed weeks ago and had pretty much given up on the idea that it would be published. I guess it was a slow news day.

The I79 Slaw Line Pinpointed!

I have finally nailed down the precise point of where I79 crosses the slaw line. Before I divulge the location, let's review for the sake of newcomers:

The majority hot dog culture in West Virginia dictates that "everything" on a hot dog includes mustard, onions, chili AND coleslaw (some individual hot dog joints include ketchup but they are mostly misguided souls that just don't know any better). This culture exists virtually everywhere throughout the southern two-thirds of the state except for Huntington (which seems to think that slaw is optional) and is completely perverted in the Northern Panhandle where slaw can't be found in any hot dog joint known to us. It has been postulated that there must be a point along Interstate 79, the main artery for north-south traffic through the state, where the slaw culture is lost into the unfortunate void of a no-slaw zone. After a great deal of research, this point has been found.

At the risk of over-simplification and dishonoring the work that had been done to begin to narrow down the slaw line crossing, the big break came when I visited Ritzy Lunch and found out that Clarksburg is in the fringe area, where slaw can be obtained without restaurant staff giving you the strange look that they do in Fairmont. So my search moved to the south of Clarksburg. The Nutter Fort Dairy Queen has chili and onions standard, but that is to be expected since Nutter Fort is esentially Clarksburg even though it lies a few miles to the south.

Since there are no Dairy Queens between the no slaw Nutter Fort location and the yes slaw Flatwoods store, I have to rely on locally owned hot dog joints. T&L Hot Dogs is a fly in the ointment since it is a regional chain based in Clarksburg but are spread throughout the slaw line border zone. I realized this might bend the slaw line artificially south if there are no local joints to offset its influence, so I set off on a research path that sought out locally owned restaurants that served hot dogs. This was harder than it sounds since this area is some of the most sparsely populated territory in the state and restaurants are few and far betweeen.

Heading north from Flatwoods, I found no hot dog joints in Burnsville, but Glenville is just a few miles away and I know of at least one HDJ there that has slaw on a standard everything dog, so we'll put Gilmer County in the slaw column.

Jane Lew, even though it's a few miles south of Clarksburg and in a different county (Lewis) I nevertheless have always felt that people there identify with Clarksburg. So I was quite surprised to find that The Jane Lew Restaurant, which sits right off of exit 105, has slaw on its everything dog. So Lewis County lies south of the slaw line.

This leaves us with Lost Creek, which has no restaurants that I could find. The closest is at West Milford. There, the Dairy King Restaurant does not include slaw on their dogs except by special request. Presuming the slaw line lies between West Milford and Jane Lew, I put a pin in the map near the southern border of Watters Smith Memorial Park which is exactly half way between the two.

Now I needed a reference point to the east. Phillipi lies due east of Lost Creek, but it's in a completely different county. Barbour County, it seems to me, has its own identity which could be a plus or a minus when it comes to the task at hand. I checked with City Restaurant in Phillipi and they said they do include slaw on their "everything" dogs. Now I needed one more point from which I could triangulate and located the precise I79 crossing of the slaw line. Grafton, I know from previous experience, is a slaw optional city and since it sits 13 miles due north of Phillipi that would put the eastern reference point near Clemtown. Drawing a straight line from my two reference points I find that the line crosses Interstate 79 at mile marker 111.

So I stopped at milepost 111 today on my northward trip and was surprised to find that someone had apparently beaten me to the punch! (click on picture to enlarge)

Swiftwater Cafe Review Update

You know, all of us want to think we make a difference in the world. Even a lowly hot dog blogger wants to think he's changing the world, one weenie at a time, by highlighting the best hot dog joints and hoping that market forces or natural selection will create a better grade hot dog for us all. Alas, all my ramblings seem to amuse a few folks but no lasting change seemed to be happening because of this blog. Until now.

I got an email from Teddy at Swiftwater Cafe the other day and in it he told me that he had found a new slaw recipe and thought I should come by and try it. Now you might recall that while they have the best weenie in town, their slaw was lacking. Imagine, a business that really wants to have a quality product and listens to customers. In this day and age? Unheard of! But thankfully Swiftwater has always been a cut above the average hot dog joint. Now they are two cuts above.

The new slaw is southern style: Sweet and finely chopped. The color is greener than most (I think because the greenest leaves of the cabbage were included instead of discarded - which also makes it wonderfully tender to chew). The taste is nearly perfect for hot dogs. The texture isn't as creamy as I normally like, but changing that might change the taste. Leave well enough alone. It is very, very good the way it is.

Put this stuff on a hot dog with Swiftwater's chili and their amazing Boar's Head weenie and you have yourself a mighty fine WVHD. One of the best in town.

Swiftwater is located in the 405 Capitol Street building on the Washington Street side. It's on the block between Kinko's and Park Place Cinemas. They are open for lunch (Hot Dog Special - 2 dogs, chips and a fountain drink for $4.00) and breakfast Monday-Friday.

And when you go, make sure to thank them for being conscientious about the quality of their hot dogs!

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joints - Peggy's Dairy Treat

About two miles up Campbell's Creek Road sits this little piece of nostagia that has everything you might expect from something called "Peggy's Dairy Treat", and a few things you wouldn't expect.

First, there's Peggy. She's been there for decades and still greets customers with a smile as she takes their order. Then there are the dairy treats: A whole compliment of ice cream dishes and milk shakes adorn the menu and they all look pretty tasty. The building is also what you'd expect in a roadside dairy bar except that it has been modified from its former walk-up only status to include a small dining room whose walls are painted purple for no apparent reason.

What you might not expect is that Peggy's has things on the menu like baked steak and gravy and a full line of scrumptious home made cakes and pies in addition to the ice cream.

But you would expect hot dogs in a place like this and you will definitely find them.

Peggy's hot dogs are true West Virginia Hot Dogs. Not the best, but perhaps the most typical specimen you are apt to find in the Charleston area. The chili, while meaty and tasty, tastes of no spice other than chili powder. It is served somewhat sparingly. The slaw is coarse but nicely sweet and great tasting. The bun was steamed and onions were sweet. Not much to say, just a good hot dog in a sweet little roadside stand. The atmosphere is made more authentically West Virginian by the rumble of coal trucks that zip up and down Campbell's Creek Drive incessantly. One even stopped there to pick up lunch while I was there.

Peggy's is open daily from 10 AM - 8 PM.

Donald Rumsfeld's Favorite Hot Dog

In honor of today's big adios, I thought I'd post a picture of Don Rumsfeld's favorite hot dog joint in Washington; Ben's Chili Bowl. I'm not sure how often he eats there but I have it on good authority that he's insane for their chili dogs.

I hear that he's a pretty good racquetball player, too. He supposedly has a great backhand, is pretty quick for an old guy and never knows when to quit.

I guess he'll have more time to work on his game now. And maybe more time to eat hot dogs, too.

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joint - The Movie House Cafe

Located about a mile up Campbell's Creek, this little establishment feeds the body and the mind that is hungry for entertainment. Here, you can sit down to nice little informal family dinner and then rent and take home the latest horror flick on DVD. The decor of the little place is "Coca Cola Americana" with Coke themed everything, save the movie posters hanging on the walls. A great deal of care has been taken to make the place visually interesting on the inside, including a model train that circles the room on a track atop the walls. It is clean, neat and comfortable. The exterior, though, is plain and ordinary.


I stopped in for a hot dog on a recent afternoon and the place was completely empty, but the person behind the counter said he usually has a good lunch crowd. Since it was such a nice fall day I ordered my one hot dog with everything (which means chili, slaw, mustard and onions) to go and went to Daniel Boone Park to feast al fresco. I peaked into the bag as I left the restaurant and was pleased to see that the dog was wrapped in wax paper, so I knew that by the time I made the five-minute trip to the park the dog would be nicely steamed.

When I got to the park and opened the wrapper, the first thing I noticed was the color of the slaw. Most slaw in these parts is basically white, but this was an interesting green color. I couldn't tell what it was that gave it its color, but the slaw was finely chopped and looked great. It tasted great too; sweet and quite tasty. The chili was also pretty good; meaty and served liberally but not much spice at all. With the heavy servings of toppings the hot dog had great weight to it and was very satisfying for a 99 cent dog. As I expected the bun had acheived a near perfect texture on the trip.

Pretty darn good hot dog, overall. It could definitely benefit from a spicier chili, but that's about the only knock I can give it.

To get to there head east on Route 60 out of Charleston and turn left on Campbell's Creek Drive (this is the first traffic light on 60). The Movie House Cafe is about a mile ahead on your left.

Building the Perfect WV Hot Dog, Test 2

After marking out big time for the Manwich-esque sauce on the Johnny Dog that I had at Southside Chevron, I was inspired to go back to the kitchen and try to make another great WV dawg.

I followed the directions on the can of Manwich sauce (easy enough) and stuck it in the fridge for a couple days to allow the flavor to soak into the meat. I then heated it up, topped it on an all-beef Cavalier, which was itself on a superfresh Sunny Bun. On top of the sauce I put some Gunnoe's slaw (Ballard's was still of the shelves when I bought it), diced sweet onion, and French's yellow.

Overall, a pretty good dog for the time put into its creation. Cavalier and Heiner's are always tops on my list, so no problem there. I used the butcher's trimmings from Kroger's for the ground beef, which I would highly recommend. It's basically the trimmings from the roasts and steaks, so there is no mystery meat like there is in the regular ground beef. Plus, its only $2 a pound (you have to buy four or five pounds, however) so it is a perfect combination of price and quality. The onions were the basic fall sweet onions they have at stores now. Not Vidalias, but not bad. The Gunnoe's slaw is far from my favorite and did hurt the overall quality with its general blandness.

I'd give this dog 3.5 weenies as is (4 with better slaw). I've gotten burnt out on Custard Stand sauce and it was nice to have a change. The Manwich was not as good as Johnny Dog sauce, so its not a substitution or anything, but its a great way to use up leftover Manwich

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joint - The Power Alley Grill

I got an email from a reader that said that the Power Alley Grill now has a hot dog on the menu. Good news since I always thought it very odd that a baseball themed restaurant wouldn't have hot dogs on their menu, but that's exactly what I found when I first visited the Power Alley Grill. I was glad to hear that they were making amends for that oversight.

The Power Alley Grill sits adjacent to Appalachian Power Park, the home of the West Virginia Power who play in the famed South Atlantic League. The ball park was built two years ago and the restaurant opened a year later. It is a typical sports themed restaurant with TVs hanging everywhere all tuned to ESPN all the time, sports memorabilia adorning the walls and a menu full of items with sporty names. The place was originally opened and run by Chef Robert Wong, this but recently changed and now the baseball club runs the show. The menu includes big hamburgers, assorted steaks, fish, ribs and now hot dogs.

Named "The Power Dog", the only hot dog offering on the menu comes with an equally powerful price: $7.95 including fries. A Power Dog has a quarter pound Cavalier weenie on an oversize bun. The menu listed the standard dog toppings as Custard Stand Chili, cheese and onions with coleslaw on the side. I substituted onion rings for the fries. I wasn't happy about paying eight bucks for a hot dog, even a big one, but I didn't want to let you people down.

When I finally got my order (the service was terribly slow and inattentive) I was horrified to see that the coleslaw on the side was some gourmet-looking concoction with half-acre size pieces of cabbage with salad dressing on it. It tasted a little bit like coleslaw is supposed to taste, but the texture of it made it extremely difficult to add to the top of a hot dog. Not only that, but the dog itself looked like something from Chicago or Cincinnati: A big ol' bun, with a big ol' weenie covered by a big ol' helping of chili. Shredded cheddar cheese had been melted over the chili and huge pieces of onions topped it off. This definitely did not look like a West Virginia hot dog, nor did it taste like one.

Custard Stand Chili is OK if you're making a quick dog at home, but it is not the quality you would expect to find on a restaurant dog, especially an eight-dollar restaurant dog. It was served in far too abundant a helping for its own good. The Cavalier quarter-pound weenie was not particularly good either, tasting like it was well past its freshness expiration date. The addition of cheese and the deletion of mustard were the final two nails in the coffin of this poorly designed and executed tubular blunder.

I really wanted to like this hot dog, but it is just as lackluster as the ones served in the park on gameday at an even more ludicrous price point. The service was just about as bad as it could possibly be, unless the server had taken a gun out and shot me point blank in the face. Overall a pretty bad lunchtime dining experience. To be fair my dining companion said his burger was very good, once he finally got it, and it did indeed look and smell quite scrumptious. I might try one sometime. But I won't be back for another Power Dog.

Fairmont Hot Dogs Review - D.J's 50's and 60's Diner

Right off of Interstate 79 Exit 133 near Farimont sits D.J.'s 50's and 60's Diner. For years I have seen this little retro looking diner while on trips north and always thought it looked nice. I finally had the chance to stop and see what kind of hot dogs they had to offer. Being in Fairmont, home of Yann's, I figured I'd be lucky to find any coleslaw but figured I'd take my lead from Chris James and do the "when in Rome" thing. As is the custom in this kind of retro diner, the menu items have names that are supposed to be reminiscent of early rock and roll, so a hot dog is called a "Hound Dog". There were two Hound Dog options on the list, one was just the dog and the other was a dog with fries and a side order of slaw. Slaw on the side? "Better than no slaw at all" I thought and ordered the combo, substituting onion rings for fries. There is a lot to look at inside D.J.'s while you wait on your order. Pictures of Elvis, Bobby Darrin and Fabian along with other rock and roll icons line the walls. The place is bigger than it looks from the outside, I'd estimate it would hold 150 easily, and there is lots of room to wander around looking at the old stuff on the walls. The place itself is just very cool and well done. Every detail is covered, right down to the juke box and pinball machine. The decor is all black and white checkerboard floors, red and silver naugahyde and chrome everything else. The whole restaurant sparkles. When my order came I was glad to see the hot dog, er I mean Hound Dog was served on a grilled New England Style bun. A good start. A nice helping of chili was topped off with curls of shaved onions - a very nice touch. I tried a bite of the dog in its natural state and found it to be pretty good. The chili tasted exactly like the kind of chili you eat in a bowl with crackers. It was hearty, meaty and a little bit spicy. I didn't see any kidney beans but it certainly tasted like they were there somewhere. Before I took the second bite I layed on the coleslaw from my side dish, and when I did the Hound Dog really came to life. The slaw, while being a little coarser than I normally like, was out of this world good! It was sweet and creamy and even though the cabbage was a little too chunky, it seemed to be very tender so it worked. Even though there was some assembly required, this was a great West Virginia Hot Dog! I sat there savoring the slaw topped creation and I felt like other diners and the waitstaff were giving me funny looks and whispering about the guy that had put slaw on his Hound Dog. I didn't care, I was sitting there in the glorious manifestation of a genuine WVHD high! As I finished eating I wanted to find D.J. and tell him what a gold mine he was sitting on. Here was this excellent chili and a good hot dog sitting there on a plate side by side. If D.J. could just see the possibilities and make the leap from having this heavenly creation sitting on the side to including it as an active partner in the main course, he could quite possibly help to move the slaw line north a few miles and get us closer to the glorious day when all of God's children enjoy slaw on their hot dogs! I had to do something, I had to say something! But, alas, all I said was "check please." And I headed southward on I79. There will be no revolution this day. But every mile of the drive back to Charleston I kept thinking, "maybe someday." Maybe someday.

Good News for Fairmont Hot Dog Enthusiasts

A reader from Fairmont reports that the beloved Yann's Hot Dogs is open once again. He writes:

As you have already learned from someone else. Yann's was closed for repairs "on him". All of Fairmont (well those of us who are addicted to his devil dogs) rejoiced as he reopened his door this past week. Currently, people are lining up around midnight for service at noon (OK its not quite that bad, but I went around 2 one day and the line was around the corner, can't imagine what lunch must be like right now) I noticed a sign on the wall, I believe it said he was open Tues-Fri's "for now."

Sausage and Bread Blog

A fellow from London (not this one) who travels extensively has started a neat blog that deals with the world-wide phenomenon of sausage sandwiches. He has published an interview with yours truly here.

Definitely a good read, especially if you want to find out what they eat on hot dogs in Nambia (what, no slaw?) I look forward to his travels and further postings.

Huntington Area Hot Dog Joints - South Side Chevron

As the closest locally-owned Chevron station to my house, I try to buy my gas at South Side Chevron (even if it always a penny or two more per gallon and the last station to lower its prices at any given time). At least I know that some of my gas money is sloshing back into the local economy. Anyways, a couple of years ago the owner tore down the old service station and built a modern convenience store where it once stood. In addition to beer, pop, snacks, etc., the new store also sells a product called Broaster Chicken , which is no KFC or Lee's Famous Recipe, but not too bad when you get it hot (they use heat lamps). Hold on, don't go back to Myspace or WoW or your fantasy football team just yet, I'm going somewhere with this.

One day as I was paying for my gas, I noticed that a sign proclaimed that they now had "Johnny Dogs" for $2.25. I've gotten to know the clerks fairly well, so I had no problem asking them what was so special about this hot dog that made it cost that much and sat under a heat lamp. I was told that the dogs were delivered fresh every few hours had an extra thick weenie and a "special sauce" that was made every few days by this Johnny fellow.

"Everyone has a special sauce" I thought as I turned down the chance at a trying this particular dawg.

A month or so passed, and I had noticed that they never seemed to have Johnny Dogs when I was there. One of the clerks told me that they only had them for weekday lunches, which meant I was S.O.L. on getting to try one for the time being.

Another month passed and I finally saw something hot dog shaped wrapped in aluminum foil. The guy at the counter said that Johnny had dropped of the dogs late that day. I thought "what the heck" and ponied up the $2.25 to get a Johnny Dog. I asked for slaw, but they said that they don't have slaw and that if I got them off of Johnny's hot dog cart (which I have never seen to my knowledge) I could get slaw. It seems like a good idea that Johnny doesn't put slaw on dogs destined for a heat lamp, so its understandable, if not a bit disappointing. This might not have been an issue had there not been the Ballard's recall, as I would have then had slaw in the fridge. Maybe next time.

Ok, so to the dog. As it had been wrapped in foil for a while, the bun was steamed and a bit gooey. Honestly, it was less soggy than those upside down dogs at Frostop. The uber-thick wiener (one inch in diameter) was hot and topped with the special sauce, chopped onion, and a fair amount of mustard.

The sauce, which was the selling point of this pricey dog, lived up for the most part to the hype. Upon first sight I noticed that it seemed like a thick sloppy joe. You could even see green pepper in the mixture. It tasted sweet, spicy, and meaty. It was not at all what I had expected but was everything that I had hoped for in such a gourmet-priced weenie.

Now to the ratings:

Sauce: 5 weenies. This is like some of the best homemade WV sauces. There is nothing to criticize about it at all. While I do not know if it the sauce that I would want on a dog all of the time or even most of the time, it is something special. Wow.

Weenie: 4 weenies. The weenie alone, if cut up, would make enough beanie weenies to feed the 3rd grade class at Meadows Elementary School for a month.

Everything else: 1 weenie. It was a gas station with heat lamps and no slaw. 'Nuff said.

Overall: 3.5 weenies. Damn, I need to find Johnny's stand. This could be a multiple Weenie Award winner. If coming to Huntington and you only have time for one dog, this might not be the place to go, but I strongly urge anyone that lives or works in Moneyton to grab one of these at least once for lunch.

Next time, I'll make sure I have slaw in the fridge.

Clarksburg Hot Dog Review - Ritzy Lunch

This Hot Dog Joint has been on my "must visit" list ever since Epicurious placed it on its list of the ten best hot dogs in America. According to Epicurious, the standard hot dog includes sweet coleslaw. If that is true, I thought, then the slaw line must run through or north of Clarksburg. Since I had already found that T&L Hot Dogs has slaw optional dogs I was eager to find a HDJ in Harrison County that served slaw standard so we could claim the county as part of the state's majority hot dog culture. Obviously I also wanted to avail my tastebuds to any hot dog that had been ranked as one of the top ten in entire country. I was really looking forward to it.

So I took a little side trip from my northern excursion this week and traveled across Rt. 50 to downtown Clarksburg. Once I found W. Pike Street it was easy to find Ritzy Lunch. I got there just as the lunch rush began and felt fortunate to find a booth for me and my daughter. The old wooden booths are reminiscent of those at Chris' in Charleston and the rest of the decor was basic bar and grill. Beer mirrors and ads adorned the walls and smoking is permitted and practiced with gusto by the clientele. My daughter called the equipment behind the bar "retro" but I had to correct her and tell her it was simply "old". Not the prettiest place in the world, although it does have a quaint charm of its own. Clearly, the moniker "Ritzy Lunch", while it might have fit when the restaurant was new in the 1930's, does not adequately describe the atmosphere of the place today.

The service is fast and friendly. When I asked what was included on an "everything" dog, I was crestfallen to hear that only chili, mustard and onions came standard. Slaw was a stated option, so of course I added it to my order.

In a flash my hot dogs were delivered to my table. I was very pleased to see the huge mound of beautiful looking slaw sitting atop my dogs. The weight and tactile makeup of the dogs seemed just about perfect. They smelled great, too. I couldn't wait to find out what these, one of the top ten hot dogs in America would taste like.

But I was distracted. I noticed something on the table that I had never seen before in any restaurant. It was a salt shaker full of a red powdery substance. I sprinkled a little in the palm of my hand and sniffed it. No conclusive smell that I could detect. Then, I tasted it. Not much flavo...oh, wait, OH MY, THERE IT IS! It was chili powder! Chili powder, I assumed, to add to your hot dog in case it wasn't spicy enough for you. Hmmm.

Curious, I dug a small amount of chili out from under the generous helping of slaw and tasted it. Oh, this is good stuff. It is spicy (not overly so) and has a really meaty texture and flavor. I could detect not a trace of any tomato product in the chili. It was very good, but not as spicy as most northern W.Va. chili that I have sampled. Hence (I guess) the chili powder.

So I got back to the business of eating. From the first full bite of the hot dog I could tell that this is a pretty darn good hot dog. It is hearty and spicy. It has good volume and weight. The chili was not as good as Chris', the slaw was not as good as Romeo's, the bun was not as good as virtually any Huntington HDJ has. The weenie was very good, but not that different from many other HDJs. Overall it rates a strong 4.5 Weenie score.

I was thinking while I was eating these hot dogs: "How can these be one of the ten best dogs in the U.S. when there are three or four better hot dogs just in Charleston? Obviously the writers at Epicurious have limitations, but why the fuss over this HDJ in little ol' Clarksburg?

Please don't get me wrong: Ritzy Lunch has a great hot dog. The fact that they even offer slaw so far up north is worthy of a few style points. I don't doubt that this is the very best hot dog that Clarksburg has to offer. If your travels take you there, you should make it a point to try Ritzy Lunch.

Just don't go overboard on your ratings like Epicurious did.

wvhotdogs.com Site Redesign

I've retooled the main site over at wvhotdogs.com. Some of the changes include:

• Frames are out.
  
• Advertisements are in.
  
• A Google search of the site is now an option.
• Reviews are completely updated as of today.
• "Recent Reviews" are posted on the main page so you can check to see what's new.
• New colors and graphics.

There are still a few subtle changes I need to make, but it's ready for a test drive.

Ripley Hot Dog Joint Review - Dairy Queen

Yuck.

Go to Pete's instead. It's just down and across the street.

Ripley Hot Dog Joint Review - Pete's Hot Dogs

Ripley is a typical West Virginia small town. It has a Main Street, a Church Street, a Maple Street and a WalMart. It has a beautiful courthouse that dominates the downtown business district and several stately churches whose steeples are visible above the tops of the majestic old oak trees that line the streets. The sidewalks are rolled up early most evenings, but during the day Main Street is a flurry of activity as people with courthouse business run errands around town. A seemingly never-ending parade of cars stream through town on their way to or from I77. Yes, it is typical in many ways.

Just about every small town worth its salt has a unique little hole-in-the-wall dining spot where people know they can find cheap and dependably tasty food. Ripley is no exception. Happily, the dining spot in Ripley is a hot dog joint.

I have received a bunch of email urging me to try Pete's Hot Dogs ever since I started this site, but this weekend was the first time I'd had the opportunity to be in Ripley during Pete's business hours. I had to bend my schedule a little but I got there Saturday evening just an hour or so before they closed. The place was abustle, both drive-thru and walk-in, but my hot dog with everything was still served lighting fast. I didn't even have time to take pictures or look around much. The walls, I did notice, where adorned with dozens of photographs of kid's sports teams presumably those sponsored by the restaurant. A couple of articles about the restaurant clipped from local newspapers were also framed and on display. I wish I'd had time to read them because that is usually how I get historical information about hot dog joints.

As soon as I pulled my dog from the paper bag I knew it was going to be a good one. It was wrapped in wax paper and was already wonderfully soft and gooey; obviously a well-steamed bun was the reason. Upon unwrapping I noticed immediately that Pete's takes the Huntington approach and puts the toppings on the bottoms. Not only is this bad hot dog ettiquette, it also somewhat limits the amount of chili, slaw and onions that can be used on a hot dog. And, sure enough, there was a very small amount of everything on my "everything" dog. Surprisingly, though, it was still very tasty and satisfying.

There really wasn't enough chili to get a taste of it independently of the slaw, onions and mustard. There really wasn't enough slaw to get a taste of it independently of the chili. But I confess, the whole dog was just excellent. I can only guess that the flavors of both the slaw and chili are very concentrated and potent enough to overcome the small quantity. It left me wanting more. In fact I felt like I could have eaten all of the "10 for $8.99" special advertised out front.

In spite of the upside-down dressing of the dog, and in spite of the miniscule amount of chili and slaw I am going to give Pete's a 4.5 out of 5.0 on the Weenie Scale. Just a great little hot dog in a great little hot dog joint in a great little town.

The next time you're near Ripley, try one, for Pete's sake!

Quick Hot Dog Review - Mollohan's Family Restaurant

Now I bet you saw the title of this post and thought this was going to be a brief little post. No, it is a rather long post about a hot dog joint in the town of Quick, West Virginia.

Quick is just a hoot and a holler from Pinch. Pinch is between Miliken and Elkview. So even if you're not from around here you can see that getting to Quick is, well, not quick. It's not on the way to anywhere. If you lived in Quick and someone told you they just dropped by because they were in the neighborhood, they would be lying.

And that is apparently the reason that Dorsey Mollohan decided to open up a restaurant in the old Quick post office building. Before Mollohan's Family Restaurant the nearest sit down restaurant was 13 miles away. Open seven days a week, they seem to sincerely want to serve this little community. The interior walls of the restaurant serves as a bulletin board with flyers pinned up for every flea market and community gathering around.

The restaurant has been open since last December and it serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The breakfast menu has all the basics and lunch is the usual family restaurant fare. They have a daily special dinner (I assume you can get it for lunch too) like chicken & dumplings or roast beef and gravy. Pizza and calzones take up the back page of the menu. They also had an absolutely scrumptious assortment of desserts listed on the menu board. All home made, I was assured by the very sweet waitress.

But I didn't drive all this way for desserts or dinner specials, did I? No, I didn't (and thanks for asking).

Hot dogs are $1.10 each and at that price I figured I'd have two. Everything, I was told, included chili, slaw, mustard, ketchup and onions. I asked the waitress to leave off the ketchup. I nearly gave her a lecture about the impropriety of ketchup on hot dogs but I decided against it.

While I waited on my order I walked around and marveled at the quaint decor and the cleanliness of the place. I think you really could eat off the floors. I read all the flyers hanging around that told about community events. I looked at the framed newspaper articles about the restaurant that were hanging on the walls. I read the entire menu cover to cover. I picked up a Gazette someone had left behind and read it - all of it. And still I waited. I walked over to the wall that held the menu board and saw this sign posted there:


Oh, that explains it.

Two hotdogs. Thirty-two minutes. Patience redefined.


But they did finally arrive. And they were almost worth the wait.

My Huntington operative, Chris James, told me that the highest praise he could give a hot dog would be to say it tasted like someone's mom made it. He would love this hot dog. It is made with care and is topped with chili that tastes like grandma just whipped it up. Meaty and delicious, but not a bit spicy. The slaw was obviously freshly made and was finely chopped and very creamy. A little sweeter would have been nice, but most HDJs could learn from Mollohan's slaw chef. Both toppings were served in huge amounts - so much that one dog would have filled me up nicely. They were beautiful to look at and presented on a quaint Currier and Ives-esque platter. Nice touch for a down home place. The bun was oven warmed and the weenie was just excellent. All-beef, I was told.

If not for the long wait I would give these dogs a four-and-a-half weenie rating, but knock off a half point for the delay. If I wanted a nice relaxing family and friends meal then the wait would be a plus, but hot dogs are a grab and go food and there's really no fun in waiting that long for them. I fully intend to go back sometime for one of their dinner specials and then I will make no bones about the laid back pace. And you might say that I shouldn't complain because I was warned, but the warning wasn't posted in a spot where you would see it easily. Maybe it should be printed on the menu.

Mollohan's is open 11AM - 8PM Monday thru Friday, 10AM - 8PM Saturday and 10AM-6PM Sunday. It is located right on Pinch-Quick Road just as you come in to Quick.

Quest For Fish

Circleville, Ohio is the home of the annual "Pumpkin Show" which is hands-down the greatest festival I have ever visited. I had family connections in Circleville and every October we would make the trek to this quaint little town just south of Columbus just to view the giant pumpkins awaiting judging on Main Street, see again the world's largest pumpkin pie in the window of Lindsey's Bakery, ride the rides and watch the two parades that happened each of the festival's four days. It is a place and time full of fond memories. This year's festival starts tomorrow (Jackie, you should definitely take the little Lanterns). It is magnitudes beyond Milton's little wing ding in scope and coolness.

Okay, okay, but where's the hot dog relevance? Well, it's a stretch, but before I found that I had been liberated from my allergy to coleslaw I had another obsession that took me to odd little restaurants looking for the perfect specimen. It started when I was about 14 years old in a bar in Circleville.

The bar was (and still is) called "Shifty's" and it was (and I assume still is) the most perfect example of a small town watering hole that I have ever seen or even heard of. From the outside it's nothing special but walk through the creaky red door and you immediately know that this place is very special. To a fourteen year old boy it was more than special: It was positively magical. Pictures of local celebrities with autographs wishing the owners good luck in future endeavors lined the walls. A TV hanging in one corner was always on and always seemed to have an Ohio State football game on whenever I was there - which I'm sure was impossible because it was long before ESPN and VCRs. In two of the other corners were screens for what would best be described as a video game, but it wasn't. It was a dart throwing game where a cartoonish character did the throwing, controlled by a bar-goer holding a remote that controlled when the dart was released. The dart would go from one screen and seemingly through the ether to the other screen that held the image of the dart board. Depending on at what point in the throwing motion of the cartoon dart thrower the button was pressed, the dart would hit the edge of the target or a bullseye with varying point levels for each zone. The game kept score and two or four players could play against each other. Since this was perhaps a year before I saw "Pong" for the first time it was mesmerizing, as you can imagine. I played for hours.

My uncle, who lived in Circleville, and my stepfather were the adults that were responsible for my presence in the bar, and while it might seem unimaginable in this day and time, it was quite normal for a young man to be in a bar in those days. I'm not sure it was legal at all, but it was fairly common for a man to take his son into bars to show him off to his drinking buddies. My uncle and stepdad would sometimes take me to play golf with them at my uncle's club and they never played golf without stopping off at Shifty's for a "snort" on the way home. So I went to Shifty's, but no snorts for me.

Sometimes we would eat at Shifty's and that is when I fell completely in love with the fish sandwich they served there. It was the tastiest and most satisfying sandwich I had ever eaten and to this day I have never found one as good. And I have tried. I can't tell you a single detail about it after all these years except that it was majorly awesome.

I made it my hobby for many years to find a fish sandwich in Charleston as good as Shifty's. I have to tell you that I never found one that was as good, but the closest I ever found was at the drive in that used to be located on Kanawha Boulevard where the Moose Lodge is today (I think it was called the "Tip Top Drive In"). Of course there was no Blogger in those days so I never documented my quest for fish but I assure you it was every bit as involved as my search for hot dogs.

Well, the reason I bring this up is because I was thinking about Shifty's and the Circleville Pumpkin Show recently and I did a little Googling. Lo and behold I found this little ukulele music video that was shot outside and inside Shifty's! As I watched it I laughed, and as I watched it again it brought a tear to my eye as I missed those scrumptious sandwiches. In the video you get a glimpse of the inside and the people who patronize the place these days. Check it out.


Isn't the Internet great sometimes?

Now thats a big wiener....

I found the above public domain photo of the world's longest hot dog here. At 104' 9", it was done as a publicity stunt for a bakery in Oregon. Imagine, however, if someone in WV had tried for the record. It very well could have exhausted the world's supply of cabbage and sweet onion.

Why I'm a Hot Dog Fool

You know the saying "There's nothing worse than a reformed anything"? Well, it's true and the truth behind the saying is also the truth behind my obsession with hot dogs, West Virginia style.

It all started when I was about seven years old. I suddenly and inexplicably developed several food allergies all at once. It first came to my attention, and to the attention of my poor sainted mother, when I had a "Zero" candy bar after dinner one evening and within 20 minutes my lips and eyes had swollen up so bad that I couldn't talk or see. My mother, who was normally in complete control in any crisis, went completely berzerk and rushed me to the hospital. After questioning me for quite a while (and only "yes" or "no" questions because I literally couldn't speak intelligibly because of the enormous size of my lips) they deduced that I had most likely developed an allergy to almonds since that was the most likely allergen present in the food I had eaten that day. They gave me a shot of Benedryl and sent me home.

Over the next few months I discovered all the things I couldn't eat anymore. Not only did I find out that I couldn't eat almonds, but walnuts, hazlenuts, pecans, peanuts and peanut butter where all now taboo. Unfortunately most of these discoveries were accompanied by a trip to the ER at Charleston Memorial Hospital. I was told simply that I could not eat these things that I loved so much, and perhaps I could never eat them again. Ever. Forever is a long time for a 7 year old. My doctor did say that it was possible that I could "grow out of my allergies" someday but I discounted it. He said I would likely be in my twenties before that could happen. "Twenties! Might as well be in the hundreds," I thought.

I also develeped one non-nut allergy, but more about that later.

Now I really loved to eat nuts, but I knew that I could do so no longer. Even at age 7 or 8 I understood that eating nuts could kill me and therefore it was fairly easy to stay away from them (even though one of my family's holiday traditions was to have bowls of mixed nuts sitting around the house with sets of nutcrackers and nut picks so guests could help themselves). Being in general contact with the foods in question wasn't a problem. My allergies only manifested symptoms if I actually ate the nuts, so I learned to just say no.

Peanut butter was harder. How can you be a kid and not eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? I can tell you, it's hard. How many times when having lunch with my friends at the school lunch table did I long to trade my cheese or bologna sandwich for a peanut butter and jelly, bananna or honey sandwich? How many times did I have to tell a friend's mom "no thanks" when she offered to make me a sandwich? I went from age 7 to age 25 without tasting the simple joy of a PB&J. What changed at age 25 you ask? I'll tell you: I couldn't take it any longer.

One day I decided that that I simply couldn't stand it any more, I had to have a PB&J if it killed me, and I knew it just might. So I took a prophylactic dose of Benadryl and I fixed myself not one, not two, but three PB&J sandwiches on white bread. I sat at the small kitchen table of my small apartment and instructed my friend to call 911 if I lost conciousness. I moved things out of the way so the paramedics could get me through the door and down the steps on a gurney. I was ready. After making all the preparations, pouring myself a glass of milk and a large cup of courage, I took a bite.

My allergies had always been so acute that even touching peanut butter to my lips brought an immediate tingling sensation and, in short order, swelling to the area. But after the first bite that day, either due to the Benadryl suppressing the histamine that my body was trying to produce or because I had simply "grown out of my allergies", I felt nothing. I waited for a few minutes then took another bite. Still nothing. So I began taking bigger and bigger bites and still nothing! I finished the first sandwich and simply wolfed down the second in about three bites. The third, though, was for savoring. It was for all the PB&J sandwiches I had been denied all those years. When I finally downed the last bite I felt truly satisfied, although I still feared the reaction that could send me into anaphylactic shock at any moment.

It never came. There was no reaction whatsoever.

Over the next few weeks I tried eating PB&J's again, first with the Benadryl appetizer, then without. I had no further reactions. It seemed that the mythical "growing out" of it had actually happened. I was liberated.

Next stop? The Peanut Shop on Capitol Street. Yes, I confess that I went on a nut binge. It was like I had to make up for lost time by consuming as many nuts of as many varieties as I possibly could. I bought almonds, cashews and pecans like they were going out of style. I made the October trek to Spencer and ate Black Walnut EVERYTHING. I tried all the exotic nuts I had been denied during my allergic period and I fell completely in love with pistachios, over which to this day I am competely powerless; I will eat them until they are gone or I am sick - or both.

Other than pistachios, though, I pretty much got over the nut obsession after a few years. I still love nuts and hardly a day goes by that I don't have a handful of some kind. I still love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and I keep a jar of PB and a jar of J in the kitchenette at my office just in case I can't leave for lunch. But for the most part I'm just a normal nut eater now.

So, what does this have to do with hot dogs? Remember I said I was also allergic to one non-nut related food?

The other thing I was allergic to was coleslaw.

A Lazy Friday Post

I had hot dogs today.

"So what?" you say.

They were good hot dogs. From Chris'. I felt like having hot dogs but didn't feel like rolling the dice on a new joint just so I'd have something to post. Chris' is always good. Scratch that, Chris' hot dogs are always great. Romeo's hot dogs are always great too but Chris' is closer to my office.

So today I allowed myself the luxury of an actual lunch hour (well, 45 minutes anyway). I call it a luxury because I have one of those jobs where I am always on duty and my work is never finished, so I usually grab it to go and eat at my desk. But when I walked into Chris' today I decided to just sit and take in the atmosphere. The place was packed and I got the last seat at the bar. As I sat there I was able to watch the whole room and the people in it very discreetly with the aid of the huge mirror on the other side of the bar. As I waited on my order I had time to spend a few minutes watching the lunchgoers at each booth and table as they chatted and chewed. Some of the tables looked and sounded more fun than others. Only one person sat alone, except for me and my fellow bar-sitters. The solitary booth sitter was a face I recognized as a former elected official. Some of the other diners also had familiar faces, but I wasn't sure why they were familiar. In a small city like Charleston it's not too surprising to see faces you recognize simply because you see them frequently enough that they seem familiar.

When my hot dogs arrived I savored them slowly. I wish I knew the secret to Gus Christo's chili. Not that I'd try to duplicate it, I just wish I knew what made it so darn good. It's impossible to identify any one taste over another. It is just a great blend of perfect flavors. There really are three hot dog joints in the area that have amazing chili and all three share this same trait: The chili is enigmatic and difficult to describe because it has such a unique flavor that is unlike any other taste. But Chris' adds that burn! Oh man, it sticks with you for an hour after lunch.

The slaw and everything else was great today too. As I was paying for my order I noticed that Karen had framed her "Best Hot Dog Chili" Weenie Award certificate and had it hanging proudly by the register. That made me feel pretty good about the work that goes into this blog.

And it is work. Fun work, but work nevertheless. I counted up today that I have published over sixty hot dog reviews. In the process I have eaten over eighty hot dogs, most of them weren't very good. There have been many that were so mediocre that I never bothered posting reviews for them. But, man oh man, when you get hold of a great one it makes all the effort worthwhile.

It was a lazy Friday to end an exhausting week. Maybe next week I'll find another great hot dog in a new and unexpected place. I have to drive north next Friday so maybe I can try to nail down more precisely where the slaw line intersects with I79. If I do, I hope I can sit and enjoy my hot dog like I was able to do today.

Because sometimes you just have to stop and smell the chili.

Clendenin Hot Dog Joint Review - Yummee Freeze

I was astonished when I rounded the curve and saw the sign. After all I had just left Clendenin, it with its two excellent hot dog joints Shafer's and the Dairy Queen, and here was an obvious suspect for yet a third good hot dog joint within a mile of town. The Yummee Freeze is one of those classic roadside dairy bars where West Virginia hot dogs of exceptional quality are known to live. By the looks of the building and sign it looks like it's been there for 30 years, but by the looks of the crowd waiting eagerly for their for their orders it seemed like it was brand new.

When I pulled up there were five or six people waiting for their orders. I was glad to hear that as each order was called every single one of them were for a quanity of hot dogs. "Three with chili and onions," the counter lady would announce through the small opening in the sliding window. "Two with everything!" That would be me.

Wrapped nicely in wax paper, my hot dogs had a nice weighty feel to them. The slaw was a little dry and wasn't nearly sweet enough for my picky palate. The chili was the Mexican taco meat variety and it had a sneaky slow burn. It did not seem spicy until I had already started back down the road when I realized that I had finished my Pepsi and began to look for somewhere to stop for another.

The bun and weenie were pretty good and interstingly enough, just as I was leaving a Heiner's truck pulled in with a fresh delivery (well, as fresh as it gets in these parts) of buns.

I said I was astonished when I discovered the Yummee Freeze. This is because I thought for a moment that I had discovered that Clendenin was a West Virginia Hot Dog Mecca of sorts. If there were actually three hot dog joints with great dogs within two miles of each other, well that would be an unprecendented and prodigious discovery indeed. As it turns out, the Yummee Freeze only sells a good hot dog, not a great one. Still, Clendenin certainly deserves an award for great hot dog joints per capita, and Yummee Freeze is still a neat little HDJ even if does suffer by local comparison.

Haloscan - Update: All is Not Lost

Update: I figured out a way to recover the old posts and to make them display on individual post pages as "Old Comments." Phew! That was close.

Serves me right. I thought I'd be like the cool kids and add Haloscan to the blog. I read every little piece of find print and never saw the part that said if you install Haloscan YOU WILL LOSE EVERY COMMENT EVER POSTED ON YOUR BLOG!!!!!

AAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!

Like Abe Lincoln said "Comments are the lifeblood of a blog." So I guess my blog is now bleeding to death.

~whimper~

If you need me I'll be over there on the floor, curled up in a fetal position.

Clendenin Hot Dog Joint Review - Shafer's Super Stop

After I posted the Clendenin DQ review last week I got an email that said that the best hot dogs in West Virginia could be found at Shafer's Super Stop which is on the access road that connects I79 Exit 19 with the town of Clendenin. Well, as I have written before, don't go telling me that you have the best hot dogs in town, in the county or the state unless it's true because I am going to judge you more harshly if you do. I don't like bragging that isn't backed up and I hate false advertising.

So I had to be in Clendenin again today and thought I'd go ahead and check out the dogs at Shafer's. While driving the twenty miles I was, quite frankly, prejudicially planning to find inferior hot dogs at Shafer's. I had eaten there once before and recalled it as more of a place that sells pre-packaged pizzas and other typical convenience store fare. I was sure I would find some self-service hot dog bar with condiments in little tubs with utensils that looked like they had been freshly washed last week. I convinced myself that I was going to be ticked off because I drove all that way to find bad hot dogs.

So I walked into the little joint and ordered a single hot dog, because I knew I wouldn't want more than that since they were going to be so bad. When the lady handed me my order I saw that the hot dog was served in the dreaded hot dog coffin: "A sign of more mediocrity," I thought to myself.

So I walked outside and popped open the coffin and saw, much to my surprise, a hot dog that was topped with a liberal helping of some of the nicest looking coleslaw I've seen. Finely chopped and fresh looking, I quickly tasted it and was completely surprised to find that it was sweet and tasty. "OK," I thought, "but I'll bet the chili is gross." Wrong again. The chili was quite meaty and had a hearty taste that really worked with the sweet slaw. It had almost no spiciness but the flavor was just nice.

My prejudices were falling by the wayside one by one and I began to look at the hot dog with a more open mind. I realized that the bun was nearly perfectly steamed: Not too soggy but certainly very soft completely through. The weenie was the only part of the dog that wasn't remarkable, but it certainly wasn't bad. Overall this was a very good hot dog. Not the best in West Virginia, like my emailer claimed, but very good. When compared with the dogs down the road at the DQ, I would say it's probably a matter of taste which one is the better dog. Shafer's chili is very meaty tasting while DQ has the kind that is cooked at higher temperature and is sort of carmelized into a sweet and tangy mixture. The slaw at DQ is very creamy while Shafer's is sweeter. You won't go wrong with either.

I simply have to say a few things about the atmosphere at Shafer's. This place is pure Appalachian to its core. First, as the name "Super Stop" indicates, it is a combination truck stop, gas station, convenience store and fast food restaurant. You order at the counter, wait for your food standing around in the aisles of the store and pay for your food at the counter by the front door. It is down-home friendly and absolutely without pretense. Some, not me but some, would certainly label it a "redneck" place. The clientele sitting in the dining room in the back when I was there would definitely tend to reinforce such a label. It is exactly the kind of place you find all over West Virginia in those places where rural communities meet an Interstate highway exit (although this is the very first time I've seen a sign advertising a "Turkey Split" - I was afraid to ask what it was!).

But don't be prejudiced like me. Give Shafer's a chance the next time you're in the area and you'll find some pretty good authentic West Virginia hot dogs in a pretty authentic West Virginia roadside oasis.

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joints - 7-11 Cafe in Elkview

So I get an email from a guy, Eddie, who says the best hot dogs around can be found at Maynor's Sandwich Shop in Elkview. He tells me that he is a former Charleston city policeman and has eaten a gazillion hot dogs and swears that Maynor's has as good a hot dog as there is. So I went in search of Maynor's, looking forward to enjoying such a treat for myself.

I followed the directions to the letter but when I got to the end of the trip, instead of finding Maynor's Sandwich Shop, I found a 7-11! It had a sandwich shop attached to it and it had hot dogs on the menu, but no sign that indicated this was the Maynor's I sought. "Well," I thought, "I might as well get a hot dog while I'm here," so I did.

The menu lists several styles of hot dogs, one of which called the "West Virginia Hot Dog" with chili, slaw and onions. They also had a New York style and a couple of others listed. Naturally I opted for the WVHD, even if it lacked mustard.

Unfortunately it lacked a lot more than mustard. The slaw was pretty average, the chili tasted Mexican, kind of like taco meat with a touch of tomato sauce. The weenie was not high quality and the bun was basic. Overall about a 3 on the weenie scale.

So I went away not sure if I had found Maynor's or had stumbled into another HDJ instead. It wasn't until I wrote Eddie to ask for a clarification that I found that it was indeed Maynors, but that it had just recently changed its name. Eddie told me that he had eaten there since the change and that it was still the same. Well, either it has changed since Eddie was there or we have different tastes in hot dogs. Sorry Eddie, these dogs rank low on my list. My recommendation for someone looking for hot dogs in Elkview would be to drive about six miles to the north.

Charleston Area Hot Dog Joints - Fat Bob's Roadhouse Diner

One of the neatest lunchspots in the Charleston area is hidden in plain sight on McCorkle Avenue in South Charleston. It's called "Fat Bob's Roadhouse Diner" and it's tucked away inside The Harley Davidson shop in Spring Hill. It is a delightful restaurant with a delightful staff with delightful food in a place that many people might fear to tread because of the undeserved reputation of those who ride big, loud motorcycles. The crowd is not what you might expect, though, as a visit to Fat Bob's at lunchtime will reveal: You will see many more business suits than leather jackets (although you can buy yourself a leather jacket while you're there). Even without the stereotypical bike crowd, though, you still can't forget you are in a motorcycle shop because the decor is all about Harley Davidson and the menu has all the sandwiches have motorcycle names (The Hugger, The V-Twin, The Easy Glide,The H.O.G., etc.) The restaurant has floor to ceiling glass windows that overlook the service department so you can watch over your Hog as you munch your lunch. It is a very cool place, even for non-bikers. "So," you might ask, "who is Fat Bob?" Well, I'm glad you asked: It's not a who, but a what. A "Fat Bob" is a type of gas tank found on some Harleys. There several versions hanging from the walls of the diner. I have found out over the years that when you tell someone the name of the restaurant you are either met with a knowing grin or a quizzical stare: The former comes from bikers. I have been eating at Fat Bob's for years but I never had a hot dog. I wasn't aware they had a hot dog on the menu until a reader emailed me with a review suggestion. I had to scour the menu until I found it - a Badboy is what they call it. The only thing that gives it away is the chili and slaw listed as toppings. I was psyched when I found it because all of the food at Fat Bob's is great and I felt certain they would do a hot dog right. I was a bit surprised when the hot dog was served on a grilled New England Style bun. New England Style buns seem a little pretentious to me and if there's one word that one would not use to describe Fat Bob's it would be "pretentious." The bun was good, though, and it does add some volume and heartiness to the dog which fits with the Fat Bob's food program pretty well. The chili is also very hearty - meaty and thick textured - but had only a slight chili taste. I expected it to be spicier. The slaw has a good texture and the slight green pepper essence reminded me of Porker's. An adequate measure was served on my hot dog - er, I mean my Bad Boy. A little sweeter would be better, but it fit the chili pretty well. I think I can sum it up by saying that the Bad Boy is a pretty good dog. If you've never tried Fat Bob's then I highly recommend it, even if you're not after a hot dog. Actually my favorite sandwich there is the Fishtail, which in the real world is tuna salad - really good tuna salad. They have lots of good stuff and I've never had anything that wasn't good. The service has always been a tad slow, but it is always very friendly. Try it, you'll like it.