Rick Sebak - A Hot Dog Program

hot dogs everybody knows hot dogs are little sausages served in buns they're one of the great American foods everybody loves a hot dog a good hot dog I can even eat them for breakfast it's an American tradition you get with ballpark hey dogs you can eat with your hand you know you can get messy there's no rules to the game one of the best things about hotdog shops is they've not become standardized and franchised across the country they're still small and regional and unique so get ready we're gonna check out a few from Macon Georgia to Chicago Illinois to Anchorage Alaska will sample dogs topped with all kinds of stuff by myself I like it just like this make it good Hey look you can eat your chili dog Souths powder just mustard I think most Americans grew up on hot dogs you should be a hot dog with their I think a hot dog is best enjoyed alone don't look away yo where are you we're gonna celebrate hot dogs and the people who love them even though some folks have slight reservations nobody can identify anything I put in these things I wouldn't say they're bad for people I would say everything in moderation Upton Sinclair the jungle in few days a week that's fine that's moderate I'll take my chances we're gonna call this a hot dog program and we apologize in advance if we don't get to your favorite stand now you steam the bond you've seen the dog it's real soft and it snaps with some chili that's living a hot dog program is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual financial support from viewers like you now where do you get a good local hot dog let's say you're in Fairfield Connecticut where most mornings Gary's Imola Parks this truck behind his father's lighting store all its hand-painted signs including the named super duper weenie we're already on this 1973 GMC step van when Gary got it and fixed it up in the early 1990s there are times when I Drive in that thing and I could see people's lips inside their car and they're going and I'll stick my head out say you know what it's funny but you said it you know how can you deny I read your lips I say it's a great hot dog how can you beat that if the truck is in its regular spot Gary's assistant Mikey and 6 says you want to take exit 24 off i-95 people get off the highway right over there and there's a truck facing them but a big hot dog on the side and if they've been driving all day and they're hungry it kind of sparks them get some agitation going they think about it and pull over they won't be disappointed Gary studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park New York and takes pride in his two homemade relishes and his so-called killer dogs with names like The New Yorker and the Chicagoan and the New Englander kraut bacon caraway the sweet relish that that's how the New Englander star was just your basic dog with the works the dogs here are extraordinary and the French fries are legendary we went at whoo french fries when icd-11 dog everything's all I can handcuff good stuff very good stuff in the fries of the best I love my fries you know in a killer dog and it looks like really good I get off on it and I get off on the feedback that I get so good my wife was in labor in the hospital with her second child left the hospital come down and have a hot dog and go back to the hospital have the baby there's a tiny little truck is serving hot dogs when I consider a four star hot dog you go on your lunch break you want to be relaxed this is the place to relax sure there's traffic going by but he's got a great hotdog stand personality he's a great chef not because he's my brother he's he's very good at what he does right Gary will do just about anything for his customers but there is one thing you won't sell so many people come up to that truck and the water the whole damn thing the most loaded dogs you can get newing then turn it whatever they order order of fries then I hear diet soda and the hair on the back of my neck goes up diet sodas non conducive to the times of the truck the diet doesn't exist here you are here to splurge you're here to relax and joy supposed to be like a you know 40s 50s lunch wagon and diet soda didn't exist well Gary's dream has always been to open a diner a great diner with food prepared with all the love and conviction that he puts into a super duper weenies passion is the key to this thing if you don't think what you're doing you're dead I love working here and I love the super duper weenie and I could be happier right most people are miserable at their jobs so I dig it I totally dig it you know a love of the crazy work involved really helps even at a big hot dog stand like in Atlanta Georgia at the varsity what do you have what you have which money in and y'all on your mind what do yeah what yeah yeah the varsity is an Atlanta landmark founded in 1928 by the late Frank Gordy who dropped out of nearby Georgia Tech he made the varsity famous for excellent hot dogs and unbeatable curb service big crowds on football weekends you could go inside but the varsity was the world's largest drive-in ladies did not come in the varsity don't ask me why but it was called the men's club and if you brought a date you were outside a few with your family you had car service Nancy Simms who is Frank Gore Dee's daughter now owns and runs the place where hot dogs with some southern variations are put together and sold at an incredible pace the hot dog is just boil we have special design steamers to keep our buns nice and light and fluffy but not soggy you can get a dog here topped with specially made pimento cheese and like most hot dog places in the South the varsity's got a superb slaw dog this place is sales rate is phenomenal it's around 17,000 hot dogs a day Georgia Georgia Tech football games big concerts we can serve up to 50,000 and more cokes in any single location and you can order at the counter or stay in your car cuz they still got drive-in curb service either way things move fast and when you get to the front of the line you better know what you want on your dog how do I hate them Mecca I eat them yellow I - when I give you and I ate some chili cheese slaw we will not go on break my when I go home and I walk I eat them every way I love them they are so cool I love a yellow dog for breakfast oh that's good employees often stay here for decades and the counter people all chant the signature question some of the veteran cashiers are the best come on around down at one end of the 50 yard long counter Irby walker is in charge of the Express line and he often chants much of the menu all in your mind well then get you to the ballgame on time what kind of drink you want well we got : our forearms with no butter mislead burglars every blue bag away from ourselves all I'm doing no real what are you hell hey morning your hand you're holding tomorrow I can get you to the game on time what are ya there's three words you got to learn what do ya what are you a I'm just keep pressing over and over it took me ten year to get a job I went on air and nights and what are you hell what are you it doesn't matter what you have at the varsity when you've got a true counterculture and crazy cashiers they make this big Atlanta hotdog stand unforgettable and various factors can do that including a little creative architecture if you drive out of Denver Colorado toward the pike National Forest in Aspen Park you have to stop at the Coney Island we drive by it going back and forth to 85 and the 20-foot hotdogs hard to miss yeah just rode by and saw the billions in Wow let's stuff in for hotdogs you gotta love a building that looks like a giant hot dog it's 33 tons of concrete in the shape of an enormous wiener in a bun topped with mustard and a mountain of relish it was moved here in 1968 from Denver Karen bought whose mother owns the Coney Island often works inside the giant weenie every once in a while you'll see somebody come in with this look on their face and then you can remember what it felt like when you first came in the big hot dog it just feels unique like you're in some little funhouse the building is understandably long and narrow and the perpetual line lets you know that the food must be good regular jumbo come on hot dogs had won a jumbo excellent hot dog ketchup mustard relish onions we have sauerkraut was a sauerkraut kind of a date chili cheese mouth is watering isn't it he's good I find everybody loves hot dogs that come in here even the vegetarians I think sometimes have a hard time resisting or so it seems the dogs are irresistible the building is cool and the name Coney Island conjures up hot dog history which is not very well documented we know the sausages came to America with immigrants frankfurters from Frankfurt wieners or inner versts from Vienna now it may have been at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition that someone first put the sausage in a roll although some say it was at the st. Louis Exposition of 1904 still others say Franks were first put in buns on Coney Island in Brooklyn New York perhaps as early as the 1870s by a seaside vendor named Charles Feltman he later had a restaurant and one of his employees nathan handwerker quit in 1916 to open his own stand Nathan's by then lots of folks called the sausages hotdogs but where that term came from is uncertain to a newspaper cartoonist named cat Dorgan helped make it part of the american language by putting hot dogs in his widely read cartoons in the early 1900s Dorgan poked fun at a concessionaire named harry stevens who often sold food at various arenas including at the old Polo Grounds where Stephens is sometimes credited with coining the term Red Hots who knows there's just a long tradition of sausages sold by vendors at sporting events especially baseball games it would be no game if you didn't have our dogs we give our tickets away baseball and hot dogs hot dogs hot dogs hot in Cleveland Ohio the Jacobs Field on a hot June night whatõs Jason Earnhardt sells hot dogs wrapped in foil tonight I'll probably sell between 360 and 400 hot dogs so it's a good night hey hot dogs hot dogs how many three place here in Cleveland you get local mustard with the dog it's not good plain it's better with that mustard this is called bertman's ballpark it's custom blended it's very special better than the regular yellow stuff as I tell people it's got a little Jewish mother Pat Bertman maize oh now takes care of the mustard business that her father started back in the 1930s it used to be said the Indians stink but the mustard is great well the Indians don't stick and the mustard is still the same but the Indians have caught up with us in fact I think they may have surpassed a senior bertman's is a brown mustard with an award-winning taste everybody's is old it's kind of wonderful taste of horseradish but it has no horse radish it all I have to do is find the mustard I'm in good shape the thing about mustard it's a fun product the ballpark mustard makes the hot what do you think of when you think of mustard I was enjoying this hotdog again I missed Mark McGwire's homerun hotdog do you think of baseball game amusement parks fun hey hot dogs yes the hot dog business can be fun but sometimes it's work in the middle of the night in New York City attorney Stephen Shaw is working on his website he reviews local restaurants fancy and not so fancy I love hot dogs hey I think that they are they are one of the ultimate foods and I think that you can't explain its popularity any other way you can't explain the popularity of sausages the world over then that they are activating more tastebuds per square inch than than almost any other kind of foods Stephen suggested we walk to the corner of 86th and 3rd to papaya king this is beautiful I give it four stars it's very it's very well balanced it's very harmonious it's it's a it's it's a temple of hot dogs in some places like here the food is today Cola and the people I mean that's one of the things about any restaurant in New York the people are the decor also and you can't beat this crowd papaya king began in the 1930s as an open-air tropical fruit juice counter a Greek immigrant named Constantine or Gus Poulos had stores in other parts of the country but this one in Manhattan what was then a predominantly German neighborhood may have been where frankfurters came onto the menu around 1940 Gus's son Peter Poulos is the president of the company now was in nineteen I believe 1972 that my father decided to make a special frankfurter our own blend and nobody could have so the combo of the choir the meat the casing of the spices the smoking then we toast a roll we have our own blend of mustard so you put all these together and they make one hell of a good frankfurter well whatever they do it works and for a buck 25 you get an all-beef dog that the lights even a highly discriminating palate well casing offers just the right amount of resistance got kind of bite into it a little bit and then bang you're in there with the hot dog it's a very very good hot dog and then you got to cut that with old papaya it's a perfect combination still papaya drink with hot dogs sounds weird to everybody but New Yorkers but I guess that is the ultimate in fusion cuisine the hot dog to the five well there are lots of places to get hot dogs in New York Stephen says the boiled dogs that the push carts aren't that good my favorite hot dogs crazy for two reasons one I think the hot dog is excellent and everything about a hot dog at bond their choice of mustard their sauerkraut the temperature they keep their sauerkraut at everything about it is just right but also those are 50 cents and I can't I can't get past that when evaluating the difference between grades from high and all the competition I think the cost is a lot to do with it yeah absolutely I mean there's not very much you can get for 50 cents in New York you know Nicholas gray started Gray's papaya in the early 1970s in imitation of papaya king he deals in volume I sell about eleven thousand a day between the two stores just over four million a year and they're just video I guess that they've been cooking for a long time and you can't be for lunch whatever my day see every now and then they get low upset but hey it's good I do sauerkraut makes the hot dogger can't have it without catching a mustard strictly good you have a good bun - yeah we go for everything usually it's enjoy I really do I'm a hotdog freak I'm not an authority but they're very good once in a while I feel and it strictly drawn it's all see sinister doodle I gather enough money I come back here they get more hotdogs pretty good even so for a good dog many New Yorkers will still send you out to Coney Island to the original Nathan's Famous they sell 130 different foods now even fresh clams but Nathan's president Wayne norbit's says yet the original our hotdog is 100% will be if there are no fillers and this is a casing on this half of the special sheepskin casing that gives it a certain crunch and snap when you bite it you know nation's opened in 1916 I guess they really make a good wiener sup started from this corner right it right in this corner with 600 hours now he's forget about it when I'm little east to come here finance for hot dog and - surgery food so in so authentic estate got that make things played with at Coney Island my husband tells me Sheila I'm very chilly dog is very good no I eat chili dog and Jesus they do specialize in dog so it really tastes good well this stand becomes the center of the universe on the 4th of July when Nathan sponsors the annual world hot dog eating championship fourth of July it's a way to demonstrate how much you love your country it's an Athens tradition now run by this clever PR man named George shade competitive hot dog-eating season I don't know if you follow the sport begins on Memorial Day and it ends here umber I would like to see by the year 2000 was bought in the Olympics I would like to see us in Madison Square Garden well in 1998 it was still on Stillwell Avenue on Coney Island the crowd gathers early to see who will eat the most hot dogs in 12 minutes it's like a free-form circus with protesters - Nathan go veggie get peas a chance the competitors are introduced just before noon the whole thing is overblown outrageous and silly it's all American think about it we're here on the 4th of July at high noon that's the patriotic epicenter of the year contestants each get a pile of hot dogs they can't have mustard but savoring the sausage doesn't seem to be a priority the man they're all trying to beat is the defending champ hero who me Nakajima a tiny 23 year old from Japan where he's won numerous noodle eating contests and in the crowd there are fans who know the superstars I know the technique so it's off its bites whoa do not chew to separate the fun in the dog you switch the air out of the bun go dog bun dog bun looks like you need a lot of concentration you don't need a pic though at this last five minutes like that's what dreams are made realities of broken with 19 Nathan's hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes world record holder non American on the 4th of July so I should win the hot dog-eating hottest I think it's a poor like comprising singing the smallest most very warm this commission and voted up corn in defect when he come in universe he the hot dogs only was a year when he comes here at the contest and this I believe is the best biggest and supreme stunt in America I might be a competitor next year I don't know stick yeah but even on the fourth New Yorkers have to face the fact that the world capital of hot dogs maybe Chicago I mean Chicago they try to claim everything they're like deep-dish pizza like beats a hot teen invent bad a New York hotdog is a limp little weenie they got the Windy City like we don't have wind here on a skinny little limp bun why you know Chicago they put on everything with mustard and actually by the time you have to find you're not sure what you eat and some kind of icky sauerkraut that's it there's no onion there's no tomato there's no relish there's no hot peppers there's no pickle there's no celery salt there's nothing there but in Chicago you get all that usually on a boiled dog in a steamed bun you know there are more independent hot dog places here than all the areas McDonald's Wendy's and Burger Kings combined place in Chicago is an original they've got some very high concept of what they should be doing and they do it rich Bowen and dick Fay are professors of psychology at Loyola University back in 1983 they wrote a now legendary book titled hot dogs Chicago they said we should meet them first at Bill's drive-in near the border between Chicago and Evanston could this be the best hotdog place in the city it's like saying who's the best human being on the face of the earth we're all we're all great right the question is what's what makes each of us distinctive and so it this ranks right up to the hotdog here stands shoulder to shoulder with any other hotdog at the universe Bill's drive-in opened in 1949 the original Bill's son who's also Bill works occasionally but he's retired his daughter Robyn and her husband Rob Klitschko run the place now they dressed no dogs until they're ordered well every order is a special order we ask every customer that comes in what they want at it it just seems like the perfect way to make a hot dog right in front of the person yeah okay well this is a this is a classic Chicago hot dog with the beautiful red tomato this one has pickles on it chopped onion mustard this should be some green relish in there somewhere and then it's also got the hot sport peppers in Chicago adults love hot dogs and they're made for adults yeah you know spicy and full of adult tastes Bill's drive-in is a low-key sort of neighborhood place doesn't call a lot of attention to itself unlike the Chicago landmark known as super dog super dog is on Milwaukee Avenue at the intersection with the bond and Nagel it's the place with the two big wieners on top they're not weiners it says so on the menu not a wiener not a red-hot not a frankfurter they're super dogs up there if you'll clean up your language we can continue okay those super dogs on top of the building are known as Morey and Florrie named for the couple who has owned and operated this place since 1948 Morey Berman and his wife Flo I love hot dogs I just loved every day I had and I think it has to do with the with the spicy seasoning taste cuz I don't need a hamburger and I could they do make some great burgers here called Whooper cheese but it's the super dogs that have been the prime attraction since the beginning mustard neon-green relish ketchup being really an abomination we we will serve it but we won't put it on a slice of kosher pickle a slice of pickled tomato and served with our own french fries so it's an entire package they're fun little boxes say stuff like your Superdog lounges inside contentedly cushioned and super fries and if you're lucky the car hops will be on duty every customer who comes and presses the button for car hop service is greeted hiya thanks for stopping may I take your order now now that's standard it's standard but distinctive one of those special touches that distinguish this place from all the other hot dog joints in Chicago each place has got to have a great sign or a funny name or a cool location like Diamond Dogs on West Fullerton that sits right under the elevated train tracks near DePaul University Peter shiver Ellie who owns this place serves relatively simply dressed dogs but on weekends he employs a man in a tuxedo make sure everyone gets a good seat by the window our early morning customers who come in on Saturday hungover can't remember where they saw this guy at but you know they see a guy with a tuxedo is Maitre D' and a thug stand I figured it's it's kind of a thing to make them start off the day in a in a good booth Peter also manages the rock group Chicago and he's decorated with rock stuff also rich Bowen that hot dog psychologist brought his kids who get their dogs with ketchup this is like it has to be something in the brain of the child it causes this phenomenon here's what as the child grows at some point I think in their teens they finally bond with mustard like a switch goes off well ketchup or mustard in Chicago it's easy to find one of the places called Portillo's this one's in Downers Grove it's a new building designed to look old and interesting I don't want to get in your way here okay let me squeeze by it has a drive-thru that stick for tillow he owns 20 some hot dog places are you doing sunshine he began with one tiny shop no running water back in 63 how you doing I'm good oh yeah make sure you count that right now he has a huge hot dog Empire is there some secret to all of this it tastes good it's simpler you're looking for this big explanation it's yeah there's good hot dogs and his bad hat to us and the most of these people are repeat customers it didn't taste good they wouldn't come back were they well i Portillo's as at most Chicago stands the dogs themselves are from a company called Vienna beef founded in 1893 Janne Lustig one of Vienna beefs vice presidents offered to show us how they make wieners we have a team of very skilled butchers and they trim the fat off of briskets inside our hotdogs our hotdogs are made from 100% domestic fresh bull meat and sweet brisket trimmings and those ingredients will be ground first like hamburger then transported season and ground again those machines those weird Flying Saucer machines actually take the elements of our recipe and they grind it down to a fine puree the puree is still raw and has to be put into some kind of casing to hold it together while it cooks even skinless wieners at this point get a casing often brightly colored very uniform look there they're exactly the same size whereas a natural casing hot dog has irregularities in its shape and its superb natural casings are made from the linings of the intestines of a sheep sometimes their hand measured and twisted into links all the little raw sausages are eventually moved into huge ovens filled with hickory smoke until they're fully cooked the natural casing wieners are ready to go but the so-called skinless wieners have to have their fancy skins taken off with our hotdogs can remove it actually seals the hot dog from plastic outer wrap and scoop it out like a bullet it's totally cool and you can talk these babies chicago-style or if you're ready to motor West only as far as Springfield Illinois you can see a totally different kind of dog a cozy dog at the cozy drive-in on old route 66 buzz wolde Maier has the kind of family-run place here that's good to find anywhere he's burger basket up buzzes father ed waltemeyer was one of the cofounders of the cozy doghouse back in 1950 he had learned to make corn dogs in Texas while he was in the service he made some improvements I started calling them crusty curds when he brought the crusty kurz back to Springfield Illinois my mother didn't like that name so she came up with a name cozy dog it sounded a little bit more pleasant and cozy dogs are what the wall admirers have been selling ever since I would say 90% of my business is local people who've been coming here when they were little boys or girls every time we come back to visit this is where we come first its horned up it's a corn dog my mom you said at the Kozy done here it's called a kozhedub and I've been a town for less than a week and I've been here four times all right I can just remember come here was a little bitty kid you know four or five years old because I want to tell you this I just love these fuzzy groups people do develop affection for some of these sausages and in Clifton New Jersey is a definitely lovable hotdog place called ruts Hut it's been a local landmark since the 1920s we used to come here in our schooldays quite often the hotdogs are great in the 50s when I got my first car this was the place to come with a date my parents made out in the parking lot ruts this used to be a makeout joint and I thought it was quite different that everybody was here just kissing and hugging and then you make out in the parking lot afterwards that was Ricky and he got me introduced to hotdogs and this place makes some unforgettable hotdogs deep-fried hotdogs a Brunt the original owner started to cook the dogs this way but he sold the business in the 1970s to a new family we're all related is four four families actually it's the carriage or juses the picture opa-locka sees a cycle Eris's and the Chrissa penises the new Greek owners including Gus Kristina's usual kept all the original recipes and traditions including calling out the orders to the kitchen in the fryer nobody on entire ground rescue one Gus's sister Calliope Cristina's says the nicknames for the dogs here are just part of the ruts hutch stick a lot of the customers that have been around forever when they come in they already know the lingo so they order it that way you don't come in here order a hot dog give it to your off you what about them you gotta order a ripper a cremator or Weller we first drop them in the oil and it first comes up it's what is called a in-and-out ER and it's just it's cooked but it's very like almost rare most of them after a while they will become rippers because the hot oil makes them rip open like this and last but not least is the cremator which is throwing through a super well done and this is the homemade relish that's very famous it's a secret recipe it's mustard and cabbage and carrots and it's great but there's no question people come back here for the rippers and it's never too soon to start customers just rant and rave this is my third one it could keep going I have my grandfather's funeral some ten years ago they come off the plane I have to have a red hot dog if my wife knew I was here she killed it right now you know they stopped here before the careful my vodka almost embarrassing to admit it but then we all joke about it at this point if I would have wanted that of course Russ hot is obviously a beloved place in Cliffton and that's not unusual even in a big city like Los Angeles Richard pink and his wife Gloria helped run the place called Pink's the corner of Melrose and La Brea in Hollywood Richard's sister Beverly bull also helped carry on the Frankfurter traditions established by their parents back in 1939 when pink started as a push cart and you know they had hot dogs there for I think was ten cents and cokes for a nickel and people would drive up in front and that's pretty much how it got started the secret is that the food taste break really is delicious and also there's a sense of history here in Los Angeles anything over ten years is you know major news the counter here opens right onto the sidewalk and Pink's has lots of hot dog possibilities well the famous thing is the chili dog chili dog we got a ten inch stretch dog or they California though see the long 12-inch Kaka and the Polish dog is meteor and very good and I like it with the lettuce sour cream and guacamole it sounds like a wouldn't taste good on a hot dog it's delicious you have to try them there's a nice patio out back where you can dine alfresco but everywhere here is a place to be seen people of some notoriety may show up at any time we're near about four different Studios here these do the Jeffersons I'm an actor I played the character Marcus I work in the cleaners and a lot of struggling actors would come in and they knew that directors and sometimes producers would come in here so they started like hammering or tacking their own picture up on the wall in fact Matt LeBlanc said when he made it big his dream was to have his picture up on the wall of fame at Pink's when I was on the show everybody's to tell me about Pincus you know who holds the record for dogs Orson Welles and all my friends were here so you know and we conducted business here yes how many did he either one city what I like is there's no commitment involved with a high 18 at one sitting Orson Welles is that fabulous and my dad would say you know worsen you're gonna get happy if you meet all these hot dogs then guess what we're standing here and this is not a setup Ruth Buzzi just pulled up in her car Ruth I love you you want a dog it's just a great place there's nothing better you know in the middle of the day even if you're sneaking food you don't is a good sneak interval thing is you think nobody else email go there 1:30 in the morning come here there are people here well obviously it's people not just celebrities who make a hot dog place thrive sometimes an extra community service helps to just north of LA in Van Nuys California there's a smart little hotdog stand with a legal theme it's called law dogs that's a usual stuff on my day off I get the the police dog the mustard and sauerkraut they're popular dog is you know the judge dog which is mustard owners and chili and then you have our jury dog which is mostly known as people like that to franca Vianney is only 17 he wasn't born when this place was founded in the 70s by a lawyer who named the different dogs and who started the special service that people line up for on Wednesday nights that's our legal vise night we have a lawyer who comes in and we have a lot of people come in for seeking advice and it's a free consultation I have about 2/3 of my clients Spanish speaking and 1/3 are English speaking rich people for people all kinds of walks of life but really are aimed at those people who cannot afford legal advice hey-zeus perez is a lawyer and part-time judge who since the early 1990s has been helping all kinds of people in the back of law dogs oh you have people who sue for a dog bite who's who for back rent people who do one up here and I've stopped in a few times I've had two hot dogs but never had a need for the advice now I need the advice I prefer what he would tell me than looking in the yellow pages because he shows me the right kind of community spirit people feel secure there good evening good evening how are you doing fine hard okay thank you what brings our here today confidentiality rules apply as if he were paying me given his free time for something as American as his hot dogs you know and he's in the legal system I said he's got to be all right sometimes people laugh and such people people cry but they all get the answer somehow or another I've given the answer okay well when signvideo and last night pleasure first time I say it's the American Way you know hot dogs and the Constitution yeah it's like it has a good fit hot dogs fit all sorts of situations and hot dog stands can be comfortable in accommodating in ways that other restaurants just can't in downtown Macon Georgia on cotton Avenue new way wieners has been a place to meet and eat since 1916 it's as old as Nathan's Jim Andros is one of the four family partners who now owned and run it it's called new way but it's really old it's kind of a place that doesn't change much but you can always depend on and Kent ought to be the same every time you tell Jim Kaka B is a cousin and a partner here it's really a Thomas show you come in here and you would think you're in the 1940s but during the Depression it was it was a mainstay because the chili dogs all the way that's kind of a way of staying with you throughout the day I've had hot dogs everywhere up and down New York Chicago and a new way is a new way I think it's a combination of Jillian back for sale I get slow sometime I get catching for most a long way it's like a like a real hot dog oh one thing by the red I don't know where to get them from they're red hot oh okay give them from the stove there is a there is a red dye government number so-and-so and it's very safe and uh it's uh it's always been on there the way things have always been is important here in any culture you look at bread wrapped around the meat is a basic issue yeah for instance I'm Greek so I know about Greece you have the hero which is the round pita bread around with stuff with meat and goodies on the inside in America it's the hot dollar and it tastes pretty good I don't think anybody dislikes the hotdog no matter where it comes from well if you're down south doing the dog tour you will want ahead also for Anderson South Carolina where there's an out-of-the-way hotdog place called skinned Thrashers in an old textile mill village if you go to business school it might tell us about location location location well this defines all business logic it is off the beaten path if you ask anybody in the city of Anderson they can get you their skins hot dogs is a family business run by the two Thrasher brothers and their brother-in-law Wayne Harvin this place was a cafe and pool hall according to Mike Thrasher my dad started in 1946 skin Thrasher well actually his name is Louis right skin who got his nickname after a boyhood haircut started making hot dogs that everyone said were extraordinary some people say it's the burns because we split them on top some people say it's the weenie skin used to say it was a combination of three things chillie the bond and I've been waiting you can get beer here to limit to but that's not the beverage they sell most of the drink of choice here is Coco and a glass bottle returnable bottle oh cool small cup small coke always little bottles taste better you know I have no mustard man I see guys dicks out wide again two chili dogs no my ninja gay and it we're both lawyers like a ritual we come here at least once to buy probably two three times a week I came hard to stand a week without what comes with using the either they know that you give them like that but you give like five minutes some fast Texas painting a little salt probably some of the personally made the bed it's so good if you get you on and try the item keep up my appearance well how a hot dog looks and the style with which it served are also important factors skins here is a bit unusual because they don't serve that most beautiful southern variation on the hot dog the slaw dog for great slaw dog you will want to head on to Columbia South Carolina we're in the neighborhood called 5 points you'll find Frank's hot dogs owned and operated by the barco family since the early 1970s nowadays six days a week here Steven Barco grills and serves some extraordinary wieners what I love about them is the natural case the natural casing morning-room I like it a lot it's best dog in town me and this was a good dogs I got a funky chili too it's not quite as uh it's a little tougher it's got a little snap to it you got a crunch to him good tough tough dogs car goes this even got a vegetable on top of it you're set Cole fall now that's really a southern thing I think and it's a real treat northerners to catch up how did I get a water hog no onions I like the onions but I I deal with the public it must be the ceiling or whatever if it's during the day around here Steven takes care of the business time anyone his father Frank Barco has retired but four days a week Frank moves a little trailer into a parking spot across the street where he sets up the late-night Frank's hot dogs here he caters to cops cab drivers and college kids from the University of South Carolina who corrals around here we have a few hours every once in a while but but uh most of them doing and well one thing that I like about him is I feel like they're not as fattening as hamburgers you know I'm looking pretty good stuff you know the good stuff like my mom cousin Frank doesn't man thing I got my mom in the kitchen back there you know nothing you just like to stand around with that no but you're not eating have a bite and I know you might be overjoyed my college years would not be significant if fragrant out part of when we get ready to close the late night and all the Balkans no we call it the $5 bag anything we got left over we fix him a file on a bag about $8 worth of food for five hours it's good I mean my father and my family has made a decent living by selling hot dogs whether it be ten o'clock in the morning or 2:00 in the morning this is getting bigger and bigger all the time I say yeah my business is growing all the time it's pretty damn good the hot dogs and good times work well together and you can bet that sometimes size does matter in Las Vegas on the strip there's a very small casino called slots of fun where the hot dogs are famous they're big long and could never seen a hot and Germany the offer is little red in Las Vegas is freak is really for big hot dog well these are 1/2 pound hot dogs they're all oh me and we saw about 800 a day one of them is usually plenty been Speidel whose vice president and general manager here says slots of fun has to compete with the big places for hungry gamblers this last one's too small to have a big buffet so we had a something different than where something not found just anywhere where else can you get a hug all right yeah every day nine cents on the strip biggest hot dog in the world I use I can't miss out with the mustard I don't know why it's the best thing in Las Vegas well we've been coming up here for 35 years and always come here to have a hot dog ketchup on this side we take a bite out of Phoenix it takes the power to get up here an hour to register onions on the top oh yeah and sing and catch up and that's the first thing we head for is this because the full-blown meal it is huge we divided we take one of these and three of us quit it the bigger the better they're just great I mean they taste good and your life you can't get anything better and cheaper I'm cheap just a smidgen of a relic Chilean cheese me another night it doesn't matter they get their hot dogs whenever they want it is our loss leader we do not make money on this hot dog I have one last night if it make me sick so it's good some people oh my god well if you're leaving Las Vegas heading north remember a hotdog cart can be a warm and profitable place on the first Saturday in March a cold winter morning in Anchorage Alaska Michael Anderson sets up his little hotdog stand because that's the day people come to see the start of the great sled dog race called the Iditarod Michael who's known as ma sells hot dogs here on 4th Avenue every day during the summer this is sort of an unusual gig the Iditarod is running dog sleds are running he only comes out twice in the winter time so you got to take advantage of it whenever he does come out there's thousands and thousands of people and when it's cold you can have a hot dog and if it warmed up my regulars that haven't seen me all winter we're excited only in Alaska will you sell hot dogs in what's the temperature it's not that bad you know you layer up and you're moving so fast and you stay real close to the grill something that the street is full of teams of dogs their drivers are known as mushers and the smell of onions and sausages cooking on the cart makes every creature nearby salivate probably 10 20 percent of my customers are mushers or handlers yeah they uh they appreciate a good night just a minute I get around 27 the last great race on our car is laid to the Thames to borough arches of know 3 2 1 go the start of the race lasts about two hours with two minutes between each of the teams and standing there watching the dogs take off in their protective booties you can develop a special appreciation for Alaskan made sausages often with exotic ingredients genuine reindeer reindeer is actually domesticated caribou a little spicy they're just really good juicy a little gamey a little a little more spicy I didn't ask because they're hated here mm-hmm I wouldn't say it's too wild well it doesn't taste like chicken michael has been working this Iditarod day of winter funds since 1992 but you know he really makes his living here on the sidewalk in the summertime it's like a show that I biz week you know I do five shows a week it starts at 11:00 ends at 4:00 it has really really given me the opportunity to do world traveling to write my own schedule you know working five months out of the year right I just couldn't I can't imagine a better life i mean it's it's good it's very good for me you know hot dogs are simple food but they can't have an amazing effect on lots of people in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania in the part of the city called Oakland you'll find the original hot dog shop sort of right in the middle of the University of Pittsburgh students here have lots of names for the original but the most common is simply vo if you want an O dog you order it standing at the front counter ketchup and relish on one we wait on people who we see first but generally it's the person with a lot of smoke that gets way to him first yeah I was next the O is famous for its natural casing dogs but it's french fries are extraordinary too fried twice in peanut oil a man named Sid Symon opened the O in 1960 and his daughter Terry camposanto says its success is based on fast fresh food see it being made right honey it's big portions and quality and Batman you you are seeing a large extra-large Brian original you could be a family of six I just can't believe there's a bigger size of french fries innocence but the first time I ever came here like let me get it for a large fry cause I'm thinking McDonald's right let's put it this way if I could order flies for myself he can eat it with me and he can eat with me and we're still not gonna eat it all up so they bring this huge huge thing a prize I'm like there's only me there's just me that's gonna eat these large there's a super large promise the originals come on this is the dirtier everybody knows this place Oh Joseph Dario's nickname my wife definitely called it that there yo the original the spot come down here you meet girls when you were younger you know now you bring your wife your kids your grandkids it's a tradition man it's great probably half of its tradition and the rest of its really good laptop you know we came all the way from North Carolina actually I love dogs mom was coming up younger in grade school we used to smell the hot dogs I can't tell my age but since I was a little girl and up every day every day open the windows hot dogs on french fries we couldn't wait to lifetime to come here and get him my husband we both went to Pitt 15 years ago so we're seeing if we still like the same things on them and they are still as good as them excellent like the center of the universe everybody everybody comes so nothing is good you can meet people from all walks of life all religions and when you have a place like this but everybody who comes here you can meet them talk to them find out different people's opinions about things and they all get along and it works that's like an important place this is a good melting pot right here and there's not a lot of places like that I love it as you can tell I'm happy let's face it a hot dog will do that make you happy it's a food with more than just nutrition and calories I think hot dog is like part of the fabric of America it really is it's just a hot dog you know it's a it's American you have your certain hot dog that you grew up with and that's the one you love you probably have hot dog places all over and they're probably one special one in each town and I think everybody has their own and like my mind is here hot dogs everywhere help define a sense of place and all these hot dog joints give us unique informal classless meeting places and no matter what you put on top of these sausages they seemed to satisfy something more than mere hunger they're juicy snacks guilty pleasures may be as close as we'll ever get to a national dish and I don't know it's just like something that you know I think we all grew up with and and they taste good how's easy I mean hotdogs are the perfect food they're the only thing to eat here at night cheap date couple of hotdogs and the root beer crisp on the outside I like the nitrates the VHD the preservatives control in a chili sauce on top of it you really grown up from your little yeah I know they're very nutritious they taste good I don't want if it was a hands feet winds mother-in-law's they could fall in the dark heads thief it nobody knows what's in here I think it's a it's mostly an impulse item and also a lot of these people are here on the slide does a dog you know me okay a hot dog program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by annual financial support from viewers like you this is PBS

Channel: American Fast Food Stories

Views: 686,978

Rating: 4.8167295 out of 5

Keywords: Hot Dog, American Fast Food Stories, PBS, Rick Sebak, A Hot Dog Program, 1999

Id: wsdO6E4PouM

Length: 56min 35sec (3395 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/DeadPrateRoberts]

Just noticed him making stupid faces in the background at 17:02!

[u/merc340]

Benjy started interning in 1997 I think. Have they ever mentioned what his job was before the Stern Show? Can only imagine what his living conditions were like in NYC before he became a paid employee.

EDIT: he actually started in 1998.

[u/Knellblast]

I remember seeing this on tv in the early 00's, realizing it was benjy immediately, then spending the next hour trying to figure out what I just saw, and doubting it was really him. I realize now how typical this sort of thing is for him.

[u/Pstim1]

Say what you want about Benjy but he is committed to his "art"

[u/columbusref]

Pretending?

[u/NicholasPileggi]

It just occurred to me that Benjy has never denounced Osama Bin Laden.

[u/awestcoastbias]

"...and I get more hot dog." - one of his better performances

[u/Calabrio_FL]

That's the comedic powerhouse that keeps Stern on top.

[u/MyDixonsCider]

He's first at 17:07 - standing behind an African American gent - running his tongue thru his mouth