The Windy City or How Joey Met Hot Doug

I decided to head to Chicago at the last minute this last Fourth of July weekend. Lucky for me, I had a chance to check out Hot Doug's before they closed for the upcoming week. I had never been to Hot Doug's before, but after seeing the fine establishment on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" I knew that I had to visit. So a friend of mine and I took a journey over to the encased-meat emporium to see if it was really up to snuff. The answer, in a word, is an overwhelming: YES.

Our Journey began at around 1:30 in the afternoon. Hot Doug's is well known for having long lines to taste their magnificent sausages, so we figured that would be plenty early to get through the door by 4:00 when they close. Lucky for us, we had beautiful weather in Chicago for our long wait in line. I didn't think to start taking pictures until about 3:45 when we were STILL in line. We were starting to get nervous that we weren't going to make it in the door before the closing bell. This is how long of a line was behind us yet too.

That's about another two blocks worth of people. Here's how close we were at that time.

That's about eight more people before we get to the door, and it's getting ever so close to 4:00. We have NO idea how strict their closing hours are either, so again, we're getting pretty nervous. Finally, 4 o'clock rolls around and we're still outside the door, though just barely. So close now, we can almost touch their beautiful sign.

We finally were able to step inside the door at around 4:15, somewhat bewildered as to how we're still able to stay in line. After we enjoyed our food, we found out that an employee went to the end of the line at 4:00 to stop people from continuing to line up. We didn't really care how we were able to get in though, as our tummies were rumbling for sausages.

We placed our order with Hot Doug, who is quite possibly the NICEST guy in all of Chicago. I mean, his place was set to close at four, and even though he wasn't going to get out of there until well after six or even seven, he was still as polite and happy as could be. We then went to sit and enjoy our food. First up is the Spicy Beef Sausage with Coca-Cola BBQ Sauce and Applewood-Smoked Cheddar Cheese. Delicious!


Next up, the traditional Chicago Style Hot Dog. My first ever, by the way, and I don't think I'll ever have a hot dog any other way ever again.

Then there was the only disappointment of our visit. My friend ordered the Catalonian Pork Sausage with Saffron Rouille and 12-Month Manchego Cheese and it wasn't so good. We agreed that the cheese had a soapy texture and aftertaste that wasn't very appetizing.





And finally, there was the side of Duck Fat Fries. Yes, that's right, fries cooked in duck fat. They're only available Fridays and Saturdays and they're pretty good. There's a slight difference between these and regular fries, but we couldn't quite define it.



I was completely satisfied after our Hot Doug's adventure and I HIGHLY recommend checking them out the next time you're in Chicago. Just make sure that you leave yourself plenty of time to wait in line!

Here's today's Web Waster:

KungFuScience - This is a cool site that mixes martial arts with physics. There's a lot of really cool information in it, but it's packaged in a way that's a whole lot of fun.