New England Trip #7
Boston is the site of the Freedom Trail and Fenway Park, the Big Dig and… a real contender for the best hot dog in the country.
The dog in question comes from a tiny white trailer in an industrial triangle in south Boston called Newmarket Square. Apparently the rules of geometry can be suspended in New England geography because there are only three sides to this particular “square.” Around the perimeter of the triangle called a square are warehouses devoted almost exclusively to food: Lun Fat Produce, Mutual Beef, J. Carter Veal, Boston Brisket Company Inc, the Chinese Spaghetti Factory, Katsiroubas Bros. Wholesale Fruit and Produce, and a place simply titled Lord Jeff.
Yet the reason to come is Speed’s trailer.
I would have never ventured within miles of Newmarket Square if it wasn’t for the hot dog that won the hearts of both Raymond Sokolov of the Wall Street Journal and Frank Bruni of the New York Times. Given the number of classic dogs on NYC street corners, I would take the vote of either as statistically significant. Together their claim that Speed’s is the dog of all dogs is much more.
Sokolov embarked on a crosss-country quest for the best dog and counts Pink’s (Los Angeles), Gene and Jude’s (Chicago), and the Shake Shack (New York) as runners-up to the top dog. Yet he claims that Speed’s is the ultimate tube steak: “the wiener with the most wow, the frank of all franks.”
Then there is Bruni, former restaurant critic for the New York Times. His post at the paper made him arguably the most powerful and influential critic is in the country and possibly the world. And his choice: Boston Speed’s. Sure I wanted to try some calm “chow-da” while in Boston, but I simply couldn’t pass up a chance to taste a truly top contender for the best hot dog in the land.
The man behind Boston Speed’s is Ezra “Speed” Anderson, and he started dishing dogs in 1975. He personally no longer serves his famous franks out the window of the tiny mobile dog house, but he remains the one making the secret sauce that you can get slathered on your $7 charcoal grilled dog along with an equally fresh and homemade red relish. The secret sauce recipe is a closely guarded secret, but one of my sources passed along the rumor that one of the ingredients is… get this… grape jelly. Sources even closer to Speed would neither confirm nor deny this rumor.
What isn’t rumor is the recent panic among Boston’s hot dog aficionados. Recently Speed (well into his eighties) hung up his tongs, and passed along the day-to-day operations of the wagon to a younger partner, Greg Gale. By the time I arrived, though, this ruckus seems to have died down with Gale proving he wouldn’t mess with the best. Like Speed himself, Gale continues to use 1/2 pound commercial franks and marinate each one in apple cider and brown sugar before tossing it on the grill. The bun also gets toasted on the grill briefly.
The result is a wonder in a bun.
I haven’t yet tried every dog Sokolov did before crowning Speed’s the king, but I do know that Speed and Gale are deserve the buzz. They serve up a truly great dog… possibly the very best.
