By Kevin Finch on July 11, 2010
From down the street, it looked like the line waiting for a hot dog or sausage at Hot Doug’s spilled out the front door.
Talk about an understatement.
The full line not only spilled out the front door but twisted out of sight to snake back alongside of Hot Doug’s for half a city block. If it had been a little shorter I would have given up, but a line this long in the middle of a residential neighborhood usually means something epic. There was even a guy in line who had brought his own folding lawn chair… apparently the line was a normal part of the experience.
Then there is the fact that Hot Doug’s actually has a theme song with three separate mixes: rock, techno, and a hybrid. And the full name: Hot Doug’s: The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium. I’ll stand in line to meet a guy who opens an encased meat emporium and hires a band to sing about jonesing for a hot dog.
One hour and 15 minutes later we get a glimpse of the line INSIDE and after a little over an hour and a half we are seated on stools along one wall with our hot dogs and hand-cut duck fat fries (a specialty Doug only offers on Fridays and Saturdays).
Was it worth the wait? Yes.
I ordered the basic hot dog ($1.75) and the duck fat fries. The dog was a classic Chicago dog with essentially a salad on top. I skipped the pickle (which I think overpowers the dog) and I tried Doug’s grilled onions rather than opting for the more common raw.
The verdict? A decent dog.
Yet it wasn’t life-changing. There are plenty of other spots around Chicago for a good basic dog. Next time I’ll spring for something you can only get at Doug’s… something like the “Game of the Week” sausage made that this week was made out of alligator.
I’d certainly get the duck fat fries again. I was braced for more ‘duck’ that there actually was. Yet after a moment of disappointment, I tucked into what turned out to be a great basket of hand-cut shoestring fries with just a hint of the exotic every few bites. I wasn’t expecting subtlety after Doug’s garish decor, but here it was in the last place I expected it: in the fries.
Doug is obviously doing something very right. I’ve never been in line this long where everyone seemed expectant and hopeful rather than angry or resentful. Doug also managed to get my daughter Megan and her friend Alyx to eat something clearly not vegetarian: encased meat and duck fat fries.
The Sausage Superstore and
Encased Meat Emporium
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, travel | Tagged best Chicago dog, best hot dog, Chicago dog, Chicago IL, Chicago restaurants, duck fat fries, encased meat, fries, hot dog, Hot Doug's, Hot Doug's Encased Meat Emporium, Illinois restaurants, Red Hot, waiting |
By Kevin Finch on July 6, 2010
Of the hundreds of billboards along Interstate 90 for Wall Drug, I think my favorite driving east from Rapid City SD is one about 40 miles from the exit. It says simply “Pretty Near.”
On the food front, I was quite unimpressed with the grill food, but 5 cent coffee and a caramel pecan role will set you back less that $3 and might be one of the best deals on the premises beyond the FREE ice water.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, travel | Tagged buffalo burger, caramel pecan roll, coffee, Rapid City SD, tourist trap, Wall Drug, Wall SD |
By Kevin Finch on May 25, 2010
I feel a bit like a Pavlovian dog salivating for another burger that I can’t simply order when I feel like it.
Chef David Blaine from Latah Bistro has begun a culinary experiment called Pop-Up Restaurant. It is a culinary gypsy affair that “pops up” at random mealtimes around the region along trails, in parks, in parking lots. For a donation, you get food. Great food.
No problem with the food. No problem with the random locations. My only problem is my craving for another burger and uncertainty of when I might get to eat one. And if others are reacting the way I am, a desperate mob of people converging on the next location is not out of the question. I may need to prepare by bringing along a sharpened fork.
Posted in culture, dining | Tagged David Blaine, hamburger, mobile restaurants, Northwest restaurants, restaurants, Spokane, underground restaurants |
By Kevin Finch on April 26, 2010
I enjoy menus with a sense of humor. Note the Deluxe Chicken Dinner on this menu noticed by Aly and Jim Williams at the Suds Hut in Helena MT. The question is whether they have the Dom Perignon on hand if you order it.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch | Tagged chicken, Helena MT, humor, menu, Montana restaurants |
By Kevin Finch on March 24, 2010
Scotty Anderson came across the maple bar post about Chuck’s in Renton and sent along a picture of the original building. For what it is worth, the original looks much more hopeful as a place that might have transcendent donuts. I’m not a big fan of strip malls.
Anderson notes that this version of Chuck’s was torn down the month after this picture was taken. He adds:
“The place you went to is pretty much the same spot where the old shop was located. They tore it down and the grocery store (Hop-in Grocery) to make room for the strip mall. The old shop was there from the first time I remember going there sometime in the early 80′s or late 70′s until it was torn down.
The old one had three small tables that sat two people each. There was enough room for a line two people deep and about 7 people wide. There were many times the line went out the door.
I love the maple bars for sure! The Maple Pursian has the same frosting and is bigger. I usually only do half of one of those at a time. The Old Fashioned donuts are also very good. I really haven’t had one that I have not liked.”
Thanks Scotty.
The place you went to is pretty much the same spot where the old shop was located. They tore it down and the grocery store (Hop-in Grocery) to make room for the strip mall. The old shop was there from the first time I remember going there sometime in the early 80′s or late 70′s until it was torn down.
The old one had three small tables that sat two people each. There was enough room for a line two people deep and about 7 people wide. There were many times the line went out the door.
I love the maple bars for sure! The Maple Pursian has the same frosting and is bigger. I usually only do half of one of those at a time. The Old Fashioned donuts are also very good. I really haven’t had one that I have not liked.
Posted in culture, dining | Tagged Chuck's Donuts, donuts, maple bars, Northwest restaurants, Renton WA, restaurants |
By Kevin Finch on March 15, 2010
Over coffee this morning, a friend slipped me a gift.
It is a form-fitting, plastic case designed to protect two Pop Tarts in pristine conditions. It didn’t say so on the packaging, but I suspect that every marine now serving overseas is issued one for packing emergency junk food rations. If I was one of the joint chiefs of staff, I’d see that every soldier had one. Two for those with desk jobs.
This friend knows of my fondness for frosted Pop Tarts and decided to poke a little fun at me. I think I can take it especially since it now means I can take two Pop Tarts with me just about anywhere. My only regret is that the case doesn’t appear to have seals to keep liquid out, so if you drop it in milk your Pop Tarts will still get soggy.
Posted in culture, kitsch, play | Tagged junk food, Pop Tarts |
By Kevin Finch on March 13, 2010
Steve, a friend of the Feast, just sent in this picture of a memorable meal in Jakarta.
Here is what he said:
Had my most interesting lunch in years in Jakarta with our business partner. Four kinds of chicken, plus fish. Certainly not Anthony’s or Milford’s!
The picture reminds me that fish served outside the United States often looks much more like fish than the fillets and steaks we tend to find on our menus.
Ring any bells from your adventures overseas?
Posted in culture, dining, travel | Tagged fish, friend of the Feast, Jakarta, travel food, whole fish |
By Kevin Finch on February 15, 2010
It was the match book. I saw the name of the restaurant and the picture and thought “Ah, Asian food with an attitude.”
A moment more of reflection and I wondered if it might even be a vegetarian place with a sense of humor. In my experience most vegetarian spots do earnest and self-righteous much better than playful.
But no… read a bit more carefully below the title and the true nature of the Tummy Temple becomes evident. This is not the place to to go for lunch.
Posted in culture | Tagged humor, Tummy Temple, vegetarian food |
By Kevin Finch on January 31, 2010
I’ve been home for two days in bed with a vicious cold and cough, and during my infrequent trips to the kitchen for something to eat (and one trip to the store) I realized that I was looking mainly for comfort. Not health. Comfort. I’ve tried the Special-Ops-combat-that-cold-with-fibervegefruitoxidans and it seems to have no discernible effect on the length of the cold. So now it’s comfort, baby, all the way.
Stress kicks up a craving for Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts. Comfort, though, requires more salt than sweet in my case. Grape Nuts will do in a pinch or milk and toast with a big pat of butter, but today it was Nacho Cheese Doritos with more cheese melted on top. I loved Nacho Cheese Doritos as a kid, and once ate an entire bag by myself when I was supposed to be practicing my saxophone.
Yet it wasn’t until high school that I witnessed Todd Kotila do the unthinkable. He buried a plate of Nacho Cheese Doritos in a mound of grated cheddar and popped the resulting orange and yellow mass into the microwave. I was stunned. Real cheese on top of fake cheese? It seemed wrong somehow: a Frankenfood perversion.
Todd just laughed and shoved the molten pile in front of me. “Try it, Finch.”
It still feels wrong, but on those guilty occasions when Doritos find their way into our typically self-righteous shopping cart, a portion of the chips disappear under Cheddar, Colby, or Colby Jack. Today was one of those days. There was a pre-Superbowl sale on chips, Tillamook at a discount, and my resistance to the unnatural lowered by a raging virus.
Then there needs to be a glass of milk to wash it down. Milk that must… comfort dictates… be drunk from a small glass.
Posted in cooking, culture, dining, play | Tagged cold, comfort food, Doritos, Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts, Grape Nuts, milk, Nacho Cheese Doritos, Tillamook cheese, Todd Kotila |
By Kevin Finch on January 13, 2010
I claim that Spokane’s Donut Parade has the best maple bars in the Western Hemisphere (possibly the planet since large swaths of the world have no access to this pinnacle of raised donut perfect). Yet food gurus Jane and Michael Stern have a different opinion in their fun volume entitled 500 Things To Eat Before It’s Too Late.
They claim the best maple bar they’ve had is at Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland where the iconic bar comes topped with strips of bacon. I’m looking forward to trying a Voodoo bar, but believe a truly classic maple bar needs to stand on its own without a pork assist.
This leads me to their second recommendation: Countryside Donut House in Mountlake Terrace in the Seattle metro area.
Chance would have it that I’m in Seattle today for a family emergency, but I have a break this morning in my duties long enough to head to Countryside. Who knows? Maybe a fine maple bar delivered at the right moment could help in the family emergency. I’m willing to try. And I’ll get a chance to see how the bars at Countryside compare to Donut Parade.
Posted in culture, dining, play, travel | Tagged 500 things to eat before it is too late, Countryside Donut House, donut, Donut Parade, donuts, Jane and Michael Stern, Jane Stern, maple bar, marple bars, Michael Stern, Northwest restaurants, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Voodoo Donuts |
By Kevin Finch on January 3, 2010
One of the best moments of my East Bay eating tour last week was the first bite of the Zachary’s “pride and joy.”
That would be the Spinanch and Mushroom pie that you can’t even order thin. It is deep dish or nothing.
Up to that moment, the only Bay Area pizza worth a drive was the New York style pies served up with a bit of borough attitude at A Slice of New York in San Jose. But Zachary’s Chicago Pizza is a real contender.
New York pies and Chicago pies really are only distantly-related culinary cousins. Comparing them is essentially impossible. You find your favorite NY pie and compare other thin crust pizzas against that standard. The same is true for Chicago deep dish pies. I have a vivid taste memory of my first real Chicago pie. On a tip from a friend I left the Interstate and drove into downtown Chicago in September of 1990 and ordered a sausage pizza at Gino’s East. It was a revelation.
Zachary’s Spinanch and Mushroom pie didn’t recreate the Gino’s sweet crust, but it is a remarkable pie in its own right and one I’ll be back to eat again as soon as I can find another excuse to fly or drive to Berkeley or Oakland. If you beat me, expect a wait and enjoy the art while you do.
The text on The Forbidden Pizza poster:
The Forbidden Pizza
In Gargantuan Portions
Staring Psycho – Mad Max – Bleu Velvet
Spinanch Mushrooms – Cheese
Directed to your Alien Jaws
Produced by Zachary’s
Posted in culture, dining, travel | Tagged A Slice of New York, Berkeley, deep dish pizza, East Bay, mushrooms, Oakland, pop culture, spinach, thin crust pizza, Zachary's, Zachary's Chicago Pizza |
By Kevin Finch on January 1, 2010
The second to last day of 2009 started with an early morning visit to Psycho Donuts for the Cereal Killer and my first ever “hamburger donut.”
Psycho opened in 2009 to community protest and picketers on the sidewalk of their tiny strip mall at the corner of Winchester and Campbell in California’s South Bay Area. It could have been the name. Or offense at a case of donuts with names like Jekyll & Hyde, Headbanger’s Evil Twin, and Psycho Panda. Maybe the protesters don’t like fried food.
I’m guessing, though,that the protests just helped business, and I would humbly suggest that there might be more urgent targets for protest than a donut shop with a slightly deranged theme. Psycho Donuts staff wear nursing outfits reminiscent of Halloween, and they have an actual padded room inside the door (okay, it is more like a three-sided padded phone booth designed for photo opportunities).
Just for the title we had to try the Cereal Killer with its cargo of Cap’n Crunchberries on top.
The title is better than the donut truthfully. But just the opposite should be said for the Apricotology. It has my vote for the worst name on a menu with some other doozies, but the donut itself is brilliant. I’ll never eat another apple fritter again without wishing it was a Psycho Donut apricot monstrosity.
Yet there is another great reason to go out of your way to visit Psycho and cross the picket lines (if they happen to reappear). It is the Hamburger Donut. For the sheer cheek of saying you ate one, it is worth $2.50.
But the truth is that this donut actually works: a donut sprinkled with sesame seeds is sliced in half and slathered inside with honey butter and strawberry jam before several sliced of bacon are slipped inside. It is not what your taste buds expect of a donut, but by bite two or three, you just might have an epiphany and begin to ask why donuts are typically sugar bombs rather than pastries that combine sweet and savory in creative ways.
Or you can dismiss me as ‘nuts.’ You won’t be the first or the last.
Posted in culture, dining, kitsch, play, travel | Tagged apple fritter, apricot, Campbell CA, Cap'n Crunchberries, donuts, fries, hamburger, protest, Psycho Donuts, South Bay Area, South Bay Area food |
