When I started planning this trip, I knew eating would be a big part of my travels. Thus the name, “Eat, Walk, Jet!” I mean, we have to have priorities. When I added Chicago to my itinerary, Sabin Gratz, my longtime friend and collaborator in all things creative and gustatory, blurted out, insistently, “Oh, there’s this hot dog place Bourdain went to. Duck and foie gras hot dogs….” After a little Googling, we realized it was Hot Doug’s.
So when I landed in Chicago yesterday, an old Peace Corps buddy, Adam Schwartz, picked me up. He and his wife, Emily, offered to put me up for a few days, and the minute I mentioned Hot Doug’s, he smiled.
“It opens at 10:30, and that’s when you have to go.”
Really?
“Oh yeah. There’s a line all day. You have to wait for hours.”
So after sleeping better than I have in days (who sleeps well in New Orleans?), I woke up this morning at 9, sipped a huge cup of coffee with Emily, and left for Hot Doug’s with Adam around 10 a.m.
We arrived at 10:20 or so, and the line was already around the block (see photos). Probably about 100 people. And they weren’t open yet.
We fell in with a great crowd. A couple from Bellingham, WA and their friend. We talked ballpark cuisine, Chicago tourism, and what dogs they were going to eat. Foie gras and duck were high on the list.
It took about an hour to get in the door. And when we did, it was well worth it. Red, yellow and blue were the prominent colors, and the walls were covered in all kinds of hot dog kitsch. The menu listed items like bacon hot dogs, a 1/2 lb. rib eye dog, rabbit dogs… You name it. Or you can just go to the website. (And look at my photos.)
We ordered from Doug, a chef who now does all the talking. He was open, funny, amiable, and didn’t even pick on Schwartz for ordering a veggie dog. (I do think, however, that I got a little nod of respect for ordering both a bacon dog AND a foie gras and duck dog—and duck fat fries and a Coke).
We sat, we waited, we joked, and then…. The dogs arrived.
I must say, the duck dog (though Doug calls it a sausage) was the richest, most satisfying dogage I’ve ever experienced. Now, that’s because it was drizzled with a truffle aioli, foie gras mousse and sel gris—and topped with chunks of foie. It added up to a pillowy richness with little crunches of salt that was just pure pleasure. Usually I think of a meaty, salty bite when I think of sausage. This wasn’t like that at all. Just pure rich, fatty flavor.
The bacon sausage, with creme fraiche, carmelized onions, and double creme brie, was good, but just couldn’t keep up. First of all, the onions were more sauteed than carmelized, and really, after the duck/foie, it was hard to keep going back to the bacon. (Well, not that hard, but the brie was a bit distracting after a while.)
The group from Washington were sitting next to us, and when Adam and I rose to walk out, the guy (I didn’t even get his name), laughed when he realized I had eaten two dogs. He was easily twice my size and was working on a duck dog. He just looked up and said, “You’re my hero.”
And that’s the kind of place Hot Doug’s is. As we left, the line was just as long as it was when we arrived. The only difference is some genius had parked a Good Humor truck on the street to get customers from the line. At first I thought it was a great idea. But then I realized he didn’t have one customer: everyone there was saving room for the main event.
