Paul SL wrote:Most amazingly, with drinks, our bill was only about $8.50. It would have been nearly twice that at many other, lesser dog joints.
Snark wrote: even if you dont care for Elvis much....
Cathy2 wrote:
I have yet to have those duck fries. I have the impression the wait for those duck fries has improved over the old location.
Paul SL wrote:Most amazingly, with drinks, our bill was only about $8.50. It would have been nearly twice that at many other, lesser dog joints.
To be fair, that would have only cost you $5.80 at Jim's Original.. the fries wouldn't have been nearly as good, but the polish would stack up quite favorably.
Edit: On rereading this makes it sound like I'm not a hot doug's fan -- I am. I just go there for stuff I can't find cheaper (and better) elsewhere, like his specials, the thuringer, the fire dog, and the duck fries. I've spent far too much money at hot doug's over the years on the game of the week and other specials.
c8w wrote:From reading this thread, however< i wondered - has Hot Doug's changed,
or are the duck-fries different? Ie, are they actually thck-cut and without
skin? Thats the impressino I got from a couple of posts - can anyone
confirm? If so I'll definitely try and make the trek up to HD's again
sometime soon.
c8w
gleam wrote:c8w wrote:From reading this thread, however< i wondered - has Hot Doug's changed,
or are the duck-fries different? Ie, are they actually thck-cut and without
skin? Thats the impressino I got from a couple of posts - can anyone
confirm? If so I'll definitely try and make the trek up to HD's again
sometime soon.
c8w
the duck fries are thin shards, skin on, you wouldn't like the form factor.
the normal fries are probably 1/2"x1/2", skin on, creamy on the inside, crunchy on the outside goodness. give them another shot -- they're better at the new location than they were at the old.
-ed
c8w wrote:I wonder if, on the simple "dog" or "polish" front, any of
them compare particularly unfavourably to Hot Doug's? Which is why,
I suppose, I dont end up at HD's anywhere near as often as the newspaper
reviews etc would encourage me to I dont know if the gap between HD's
and the other options is particulary vast, as it is for Johnnie's,
hattyn wrote:Also closer for you,c8w,U Dawg U.Locations in Glenview and Niles.
Bob S. wrote:Oops. The first time I went to Hot Doug's, I had a dog and a Polish.
I just don't like gamey flavors (more than anything else, the reason I originally held back from the raccoon at Moto was the assumption it would taste very gamey). Although I like andouille -- had some from Paulina Market for dinner last night -- I can't say I've ever been in the mood for it. De gustibus and all that.
Evan B. Druce wrote:Well, you don't go to Hot Doug's for the "regular" dog or Polish, although I have to admit they are pretty good. You go because it's the only place you can get Thuringer, wild boar, and pheasant sausages in the city. And the duck fries are like nothing else, except, perhaps, for the truly exceptional batch I had at an In 'N Out Burger in San Diego.
Still, the fact is, Hot Doug's has no direct competitors. ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY.
Bob S. wrote:Oops. The first time I went to Hot Doug's, I had a dog and a Polish.
Vital Information wrote:You know I'm still itching to do my burgers of my youthathon, visiting Little Louie's in Northbrook (and also Boobies which just came up in the $10 and under thread), but back in the day, Louie's offered, well no game sausage, but there was spicy Hungarian sausage and thuringer and Schmeiser's brats, and Rumanian foot long things and Polish, and who tons more. It was all plastered on various signs all over the place.
Sigh, too bad the "real" Louie's, in its shack, died many years before Chowhound/LTH. It would have been a huge place with the crowd around here. It was not just the vast menu, the fresh cut fries served in the paper bag with each sammy, the BEST double cheeseburgers, the cherry cokes (with the cherry syrup squeezed out of an old Parkay container), the bedlam each lunch hour where they operated rather like the Merc, the louder and pushier got served first [ed. are you loud and pushy because of always eating lunch there or did you like eating lunch there 'cause you're loud and pushy?], but mostly like Hot Doug, Little Louie's had personalities. Eddie and Louie, fat and skinny, who ran the place with a rather iron fist (no extra pop for you), but they were great friends to a generation of kidz in Northbrook. Double Sigh.
OK, back to Hot Dougs....
Rob
Aaron Deacon wrote:Bob S. wrote:Oops. The first time I went to Hot Doug's, I had a dog and a Polish.
I just don't like gamey flavors (more than anything else, the reason I originally held back from the raccoon at Moto was the assumption it would taste very gamey). Although I like andouille -- had some from Paulina Market for dinner last night -- I can't say I've ever been in the mood for it. De gustibus and all that.
Try the Thuringer. You'll like it.
stevez wrote:Vital Information wrote:You know I'm still itching to do my burgers of my youthathon, visiting Little Louie's in Northbrook (and also Boobies which just came up in the $10 and under thread), but back in the day, Louie's offered, well no game sausage, but there was spicy Hungarian sausage and thuringer and Schmeiser's brats, and Rumanian foot long things and Polish, and who tons more. It was all plastered on various signs all over the place.
Sigh, too bad the "real" Louie's, in its shack, died many years before Chowhound/LTH. It would have been a huge place with the crowd around here. It was not just the vast menu, the fresh cut fries served in the paper bag with each sammy, the BEST double cheeseburgers, the cherry cokes (with the cherry syrup squeezed out of an old Parkay container), the bedlam each lunch hour where they operated rather like the Merc, the louder and pushier got served first [ed. are you loud and pushy because of always eating lunch there or did you like eating lunch there 'cause you're loud and pushy?], but mostly like Hot Doug, Little Louie's had personalities. Eddie and Louie, fat and skinny, who ran the place with a rather iron fist (no extra pop for you), but they were great friends to a generation of kidz in Northbrook. Double Sigh.
OK, back to Hot Dougs....
Rob
By the "Real Little Louie's", I assume you mean the one that was on California just north of Lincoln. That was back when Northbrook was but a farming burgh NW of Chicago.