Hot Dog Tour

Saturday marked the first hot dog tour that I have ever participated in. Fellow Sherman students Jake Parrish, his wife Rachel, Jaclyn Leeper, Frank Yanik, John Guarnieri and myself hit the streets looking for the restaurant that made the best hot dog in town.
Our first stop was the Ice Cream Shack. The dogs there were $1.00 but there was a special that got you two dogs, chips and two drinks for $3.50. The woman working behind the counter was very friendly and informed us that they had the best hot dogs in town. She encouraged us to try the chili dogs, as the chili was specially made by her daughter. The seating there is not very spacious, so we sat in what looked like a small white interrogation room.
The hot dogs were pretty good, but nothing extraordinary. The chili though was pretty good. It was a meatier chili that wasn't afraid of being too peppery. Frank gave the dog a 7 out of 10, while Jake decided that it was "better than a home dog." My girlfriend Jaclyn declined buying the hot dog and ordered an ice cream instead.
Our next stop was the Hot Dog Cafe. Although it was not located in Spartanburg (it was in Wellford), we had heard many good things about it. Jake refers to the place as where he gets "dump dogs" because it is on the way to the dump and they have a loaded dog that costs $2.25. Expecting a terrible hot dog, we went inside and found that the place was PACKED. There were no seats open inside so we had to go to the extended seating area outside and eat in the cold. I tried something different this time and instead of getting the chili again, I ordered a dog with ketchup, mustard and pickles. I thought this hot dog outshined the Ice Cream Shack's, but Jake, Rachel and John sided with the Shack. However Frank agreed with me as he finished up his meal of a frankfurter, ketchup, mustard, chili, onions, cole slaw, relish and cheese (the ingredients of the dump dog.) I was impressed though by the Cafe's decision to make homemade french fries right in front of you. Even Jaclyn ate half of a hot dog here.
We then tried to go to Boots' and Sonny's hot dogs, located in the same area as Wild Wing's. We were saddened to see that it was closed (on a Saturday afternoon no less.) We stayed on Church street and drove to our last stop at Ricky's Drive In.
Ricky's only opened a few weeks ago. We decided to go with the foot long dogs and to cover them with chili. I don't know if it was the fact that we had already been eating hot dogs all day, or that the Ricky's dogs were falling apart while we ate them but we decided that the Ricky's dogs just weren't that good. The chili is a little runny and the hot dog is a little too pink. We decided to give them the poorest grade of the day. Jaclyn got the blueberry muffin.
Frank Yanik was especially disturbed by the fact they advertised cherry coke on their menu and when he ordered it they gave him some red drink that was definitely not cherry coke. He compared their deceit to ordering a foot long dog and getting two smaller dogs crammed into a longer bun. We sympathized with our friend.
Anyways, here are some pictures of the trip.

Comments

[ROB WEBB]

TRY HOLMES HOT DOGS

[T. Holbrooks]

Thanks Greg, that helps us to know that you will be out there watching us when we open our new place. I will let you know more later.