The hot dog¹ is a classic guilty pleasure. Reminding many people of their childhood, the hot dog is a simple, fun food. Everyone has their own favorite toppings and styles of preparation. In Chicago one form has reached new heights of popularity. Its origins are uncertain, but its presence is felt throughout the city. Not only are the hot dogs popular, but the restaurants² that provide this treat are objects of local pride.

The Hot Dog Stand

Chicago's cuisine is as rich and varied as any city's in the world. Nevertheless, the most accessible cuisine in the city, without a doubt, is the local hot dog stand. The variety in these facilities ranges from the amazing full-service restaurant and bar to the seedy, sticky "Oh my God!, they'll fry ANYTHING!" locale. Many restaurants exemplify the typical hot-dog stand, the one's Chicagoans think of when they think of home.

In a typical establishment there are four stations behind the counter and three in front of it.

In front of the counter is the "Order Here" line, the long counter for waiting and the "Pay here" line. Some places will have a fourth in-front-of-the-counter station, the condiments station. Behind the counter, you'll typically find the soft serve, the fryer, the grill and the "line".

Station One - Soft Serve

At the soft serve station, these stands create cones, sundaes and shakes/malts. The details of this station varies greatly between stands. In fact, many hot dog stands do not have them at all. Other hot dog stands will go as far as to name their palaces with serving ice cream in mind. Something along the lines of, "Jill's soft serve" or "Jack's Hot Dogs and Cones", would be usual.

Station Two - the Fryer

Normally, new employees and summer-time only staff work in front of the fryer. The fryer reminds one simlutaneously of Dante's Inferno and James Cameron's post-apocolyptic Earth in The Terminator, except warmer. A terrible place to be in the summer, when the Chicago air easily reaches 90* F, the fryer is dreader by all employees. As fries (chips) usually come with the dogs, the fryer is usually on and splattering boiling oil all day long.

The type of fry depends on the establishment. Some stands proudly boast "home-cut fries" and will have a potato press to create their fries to order. Others use the wide steak fry. Many places use packaged frozen fries, as these are the most convienent.

Station Three - the Grill

The grill usually is reserved for hamburgers and cheeseburgers, and the occassional chicken sandwich. Some stands will fry their Polish sausages and Italian sausages on the grill and other will boil them before quickly grilling them. The grills themselves can vary between open flame and traditional griddle-style. The grill station at many places brings the family to the store. Moms and Dads will reluctantly eat hot dogs, but the children may demand them. The grill allows family unity as Dad can eat his burger and mom her chicken. Alternatively, a popular addendum to the grill is the rotisserie. Uniformly creating pressed lamb or pressed beef for gyros ³, the spit with the carving knife is a fast food purveor's dream. The spit takes up little space, little energy and can be handled by just about any employee.

Station Four - the Line

The "Line" is where the magic happens. In this place, often immediately behind the counter, rests all of the condiments and the precious steam table. The hot dogs are left to boil in water here, before being transferred from the steam table to await their fate. The key step here is that the buns, which are covered with poppy seeds, are steamed before they are stuffed. Once the buns are stuffed, the dogs get "Chicago-ed".

The toppings to a Chicago style dog:

1. Mustard
2. Onion
3. Pickle Relish
4. Tomato half slices
5. Cucumber, or alternatively, a dill pickle spear
6. Lots of celery salt

Some places will cater to the customers with sauerkraut, lettuce or even ketchup. Other restaurants disperse small packets of ketchup and require their customers to destroy the hot dog themselves. But a Chicago style dog was best described by "The Frugal Gourmet", Jeff Smith, as being a salad on a bun or "dragged through the garden", even when they wander from the tranditional Chicago style. The key feature is lots of toppings, many of which resemble vegetables.

Official disclaimer and warning:

Eat "chili dogs" at your own risk. The origin of the chili is often unknown even to kitchen staff. The source of meat is a common topic of debate: beef? pork? turkey? lamb? other?

Additional menu items

Italian Beef sandwiches provide a few days worth of the recommended daily allowance of fat, gravy and beef. Commonly served with cheese, either cheddar, mozarella or nacho-style and served with either hot or sweet peppers this sandwich varies signifcantly in quality between establishments. The type of beef, gravy and freshness of the bread and toppings can make this sandwich wonderful or a gastrointestinal disaster.

Italian and Polish Sausage sandwiches also very in quality depending upon the source of the meat. In Chicago there are two main distributors of the sausage, their advertisements will be seen in the store proclaiming the benefits of their sausage. The best (and the worst) sausages tend to lack the wide spread popularity of these name brands. Asking other patrons, "Which is better the Beef or the Sausage?" will be the greatest benefit if the origin of the sausage is unknown.

The pizza puff is a little known treat, even among the faithful. Wrapped in phillo dough, sausage bits, tomato sauce and some kind of cheese-like substance are kept frozen until ordered. At this point they are deep fried until toasty brown. A word of caution: like all fried cheese, be extraordinarily careful when bitting into this delicacy, as the inner treasure of cheese may approach the core temperature of the sun.

A final word of praise and warning

Each restaurant is different. There will always be something on one menu that is not on another. Proceed with caution, as unknown and unfamiliar items may cause harm. The hot dog stand "taco", "salad" and "deli-style" sandwiches are best avoided. The greek salads, various fried foods ⁴and onion rings can usually be approached with confindence.

The quality of a civilization can best be judged by watching it's citizens eat cheap food. Chicago is a working class town, an economically and politically powerful town and a town with great diversity. The hot dog stand brings all sorts of people together and is experienced differently by all.