Hot Doug's

Hot Doug's is truly one of the places that has a 45 minute wait for a hot dog but is worth the hype. Doug opens only when he can be there taking orders and running the cash register himself. He could have easily franchised and shared control, but he's keeping the place respectable! All the specials are great. And special. And the regular old Chicago dog is a thing of beauty here as well.

i was lucky enough to go to this place on duckfat fryday and no line whatsoever.  in that regard, i had no time to look over the awesome money.  no worries, though because doug took my order and could not have been nicer.  great food, gotta try everything.

Where do I even begin with this place? I swear Hot Doug's is the reason why I was sooooo obsessed with the Chicago dog for months after I left. I tried the regular Chicago Dog, The Foie Gras dog,  and like three others which i cannot remember but it doesn't matter because all you need to eat is the ORIGINAL CHICAGO DOG!! Holy crap i don't even know where to begin with this. I literally took an hour long bus ride through what felt like the entire city to get here and waited another 45 mins at like 11am on a weekday for this. As i waited in line, i was determined to make this worth my while. To be honest, i wasn't even going to order the original chicago dog because i did not wait 2 hours for original. I wanted something special and spectacular, but thank the hot dog gods i decided to just throw in the original for the hell of it. IT WAS FRIGGIN THE MOST AMAZING HOT DOG IN THE WORLD! The pickle and lack of ketchup and mustard, and the soft buns and perfect sausage and that jardiniere ( which i think is their version of relish, but SO much better) and even their tomato was just amazing. I can't even explain it. but i have dreams about that hot dog. I came back to California in the search of a decent Chicago dog but it is nowhere to be found. I just semi got over my search obsession and writing this just made all these feelings come back again :(