Lauren's House of Dogs

I had seen the ad a few times in the Metroland and was curious. I've got the need to cure something, so when I had a little extra midday time today, I made a beeline for Cardona's to pick up some pork butts. After picking up about 15 pounds of pork butt, two small pieces of different Fontina cheese and another chuck of cheese I had never heard of but the sample tasted good, I walked up the sidewalk towards Lauren's House of Dogs. Well, it isn't actually a sidewalk yet. I walked up the crushed stone and around some form work for a future sidewalk.

They serve two kinds of hot dogs, Sabrett's and Old World. They also prepare them a handful of different ways including deep fried. I went with a chili dog and one with mustard relish and kraut. Both were deep fried Old World hot dogs. The chili was a meat and bean chili and not the typical meat sauce. Nothing wrong with that in my book, I didn't grow up here. I did prefer the mustard, relish and kraut dog though. It is a little closer to the dog of my youth. The plate came with a few pickles too. I'd say the dogs were above average, not stellar. I like the place though. It had a very nice feel to it. If I had it to do again, I would have asked for toasted buns. The option is available, I just didn't make the request.

Very friendly people working there. It has been open for about 2 months. I was, however, the only customer during the 15 minutes I was there. I'm sure having the sidewalk torn up and construction delays on Delaware Ave aren't helping. Quite selfishly, I hope they are doing OK. I'd like to go again. There is a list of things on their menu I'd like to try: fries, onion rings, collard greens, dog with onion sauce,  the Hot Dog chimichanga  style (I have no idea what this style is) to name a few. There are also a few things I hope they add. First and foremast, is bacon. I didn't see it on the menu and I'm so used to not seeing it anywhere around here that I honestly didn't think of it until I was eating the chili dog. Crumbled bacon under an average deep fried dog makes it significantly better. The second is a true Chicago Style hot dog. If you are offering Chicago Style hot dogs, really do it. Do the special bun, pickle, sport pepper and celery salt. Offer up the real deal.

A little blog side note: I took these pictures with my cell phone since I didn't have a camera. These photo's represent my first "out in public" blog pictures. Wasn't sure I had it in me.