Hot Dougs, I must be missing something.

My son Gabe has been curious about Hot Dougs and suggested we stop by for lunch this afternoon. We arrived about 2pm and I was astounded to find a line snaking around the corner with people uncomplainingy waiting in the cold and damp afternoon weather for nearly an hour to get inside. Now, I've been to Doug's several times and have tried most of the menu including the much discussed duck fat fries (which always seemed a bit on the limp side to me). Frankly ( ) I just could not understand the basis of this odd behavior. I found the entire scene only slightly less bizzare than the sight of the crowds that used to gather under the Kennedy at Fullerton to pay homage to the road salt Madonna. At least nobody was lighting candles.

My, my. I'm getting the feeling that you like stirring things up, kuhdo. If that's the case, great post!

Brace yourself.


~GS

Man, I'm a big Hot Doug's fan, and I agree completely.

It's a great place, the food is always above average and sometimes excellent, and doug is a wonderful person. But I'm not going to stand in line for 45 minutes for it.

I restrict my trips to weekday afternoons. Tuesdays at 1:30pm works well, for instance.

I also don't find the duck fat fries particularly special... I might be spoiled by the 3lb tub of duck fat in my freezer, though.

I usually skip the duck frites - the score is the tater tots. Can you get those fried in duck fat?

I'm not sure, but you can get them covered in the nacho cheese sauce, a guilty pleasure of mine.

I planned to try the place a few months ago, but didn't even park after I saw the long line. I'm sure he has some tasty offerings, but not tasty enough to me make want to wait in a long line for them. Some day, maybe.

gleam wrote:I'm not sure, but you can get them covered in the nacho cheese sauce, a guilty pleasure of mine.

We're on the same page waaaaay too often, Ed. It's all about the cheesy tots.

gleam wrote:I'm not sure, but you can get them covered in the nacho cheese sauce, a guilty pleasure of mine.

Dmnkly wrote:We're on the same page waaaaay too often, Ed. It's all about the cheesy tots.

Sweet Mama Minerva, cheese on a tater tot

Defiling the crisp pristine beauty of a tater tot, one of food science engineering marvels, with goopy cheese should be punishable by a week of soup/salad lunches at olive garden.

Though I'm a fan of crisp I like the duck fat fries at Doug's, the light note of duck fat flavor making up for textural deficits. Far as the dogs, the thuringer is a classic, the game can range from interesting to very damn good and, just a few weeks ago, I had a weekly special of pork and crawfish that blew my socks off. I'm also a fan of the Andouille and regular fries, crisp please.

Doug is a hoot, the place is great, but I agree, going on an off-hour to avoid the lines is the most reasonable approach.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

gleam wrote:I'm not sure, but you can get them covered in the nacho cheese sauce, a guilty pleasure of mine.

Dmnkly wrote:We're on the same page waaaaay too often, Ed. It's all about the cheesy tots.

Sweet Mama Minerva, cheese on a tater tot

Defiling the crisp pristine beauty of a tater tot, one of food science engineering marvels, with goopy cheese should be punishable...

I submit to you, Gary, that your theory applies only to wimpy tater tots that cannot HANDLE the cheese. Doug's, always supremely crisp, maintain their delightful texture in the face of the goopy orange menace quite nicely... though you have to eat 'em fast

G Wiv wrote:...by a week of soup/salad lunches at olive garden.

Easy there, fella... there's no need to resort to the nuclear option

Dmnkly wrote:I submit to you, Gary, that your theory applies only to wimpy tater tots that cannot HANDLE the cheese.

Dom,

Sacrosanct, tater tots are one of nature's, ok maybe not nature, perfect foods. Just 'cause you can paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa does not mean you should.

Dmnkly wrote:Easy there, fella... there's no need to resort to the nuclear option

Maybe that is a bit harsh, but cheese on tater tots? Frankly, I was thinking of olive garden for lunch and applebee's riblets, extra smoky BBQ sauce for diner.

Enjoy,
Gary

Pete wrote:I usually skip the duck frites - the score is the tater tots.

I agree. Guess I'm a tot man myself (again, ). I also agree Doug's a nice guy and that his food is pretty good, though I do believe hot dogs and polish can be found just as good or better elsewhere for less. But come on... standing outside for an hour? Most of those in line were in their 20's, and I just couldn't help wondering if many of them had ever been out for hot dogs anyplace else.

kuhdo wrote:

Pete wrote:I usually skip the duck frites - the score is the tater tots. Can you get those fried in duck fat?

I agree. Guess I'm a tot man myself (again, ). I also agree Doug's a nice guy and that his food is pretty good, though I do believe hot dogs and polish can be found just as good or better elsewhere for less. But come on... standing for an hour outside? Most of those in line were in thier 20's, and I just couldn't help wondering if many of them had ever been out for hot dogs anyplace else.

As a Doug's fan from the early days, I'm enthused by his well-deserved success.

But, does the food alone deserve an hour-long wait? In my opinion, not really. Does the whole "Hot Doug" experience deserve the wait? Absolutely. The sausages are good but I think it's the creativity that pulls people in. The unpredictability of the meal, the novelty of the menu, and the personality of Doug.

The duck-fat fries have always been a near-miss to me. The taste to me is oily with very little potato flavor. I've always preferred his regular fries, or the tots.

My wife didn't believe that the line snaked down the block these days so I drove her by yesterday to show her the same line that you saw, kudho. The popularity is well-deserved, no matter who is in his line. He works hard and pours himself into his business completely.

I bet that a solid percentage of that line was made up of people that don't live in the Chicago area. Doug's has become a tourist attraction, and you can bet that if I didn't live here, it would be high on my list of places to stop on a tour of Chicago.

Best,
Michael

...and I'm with you, Gary. Cheese on a crisp tater tot sounds horrifying to me. But, then again, I'm the same guy who would never tarnish a perfect french fry with something as vulgar as ketchup.

Best,
Michael

As with the breakfast wait outside the Bongo Room, I suspect there's a whole morning after, hanging with your buddies thing at play here in which the wait is part of the fun, not a drawback.

Mike,
who goes to Hot Doug's at 11:50 am or 1:30 pm on a weekday, and breezes right in and gets a table
and who agrees about the duck fat-- it's goose lard you want your fries cooked in

Why would someone stand in line for an hour at Hot Doug's on a Saturday? I wouldn't do it, but I have the luxury of going during the week. For most people with a 9-5 job, that's a challenge. The place has been written up in several major food magazines, and Hot Doug's has the top slot on Zagat's best buys list.

So, I can understand why there's a long line on a Saturday. Why I don't understand is why someone would go to Hot Doug's and order a hot dog or a polish.

FrankP wrote:Why would someone stand in line for an hour at Hot Doug's on a Saturday?

Or any day for that matter. I can't justify standing more than 10 minutes for any place. I hate lines. I'll wait for maybe 30 minutes if I can sit at a bar or in a lounge or walk around with a pager. Some places will allow you to call in and put your name on the waiting list so you don't have to wait long when you arrive. We did that recently at Weber Grill in Schaumburg. When we got there (dinnertime on a Friday night), we had just enough of a wait to sit in the bar and enjoy an outstanding martini. That was an easy wait.

It's odd how simpatico certain people can be, like it's in the DNA or something. At nearly the exact same time on Saturday, the thought of Hot Doug's crossed my mind. We were traveling east on Addison, right about California. My wife needed to be someplace in the city at 2, it was nearing 1; our original plan of pho was giving way to time constraints. The question of Hot Doug's was, what kinda wait at this time. Glad we skipped.

On the whole Hot Doug's thing, oddly enough, and maybe why I'm not a fanatic, I often get a hot dog. Call me crazy, but Doug makes very good hot dogs, not Gene and Judes good, but in the top ten. At the end of the day, I more often want (or enjoy) a hot dog than some other version of sausage--at least those served at Hot Doug's.

Now, Gene and Judes can have a very long line too, as long or longer than Hot Doug's. There are NO ancillary benefits to this line. There are times I have rejected a Gene and Judes dog because of the line. So, my personal scale for encased meats would be like too long at Gene and Judes--Gene and Judes--too long at Hot Dougs--Hot Dougs--too long at Weiner Circle---Weiner Circle--etc. (make sense )

Some things are worth standing in line for and some places aren't worth the time it takes to go through the drive-up. Chicagoans stand in line for Cubs tickets and concert tickets, for submarine visits, for ice skate rentals at Millenium Park and for Lyric Opera bathrooms. Sometimes the wait is half the fun. I waited in line for at least twenty minutes at Gene and Jude's even though I knew all I was going to get was a hot dog--a good hot dog, but ultimately just a hot dog. Was it a waste of time? Not at all.

A thousand games of Crack Attack is a waste of time. Waiting in line with a bunch of other obsessed idiots for a unique Chicago experience is not necessarily a waste of time.

I was there Thursday at 1:30 and the line still snaked outside and around (I got the last Fwa!). While it was worth it, I wouldn't have gone had I known (good place for a traffic camera). I've traditionally hit Doug's around 11:15 on weekdays and never had much of a wait.

-ramon

Ann Fisher wrote: A thousand games of Crack Attack is a waste of time. Waiting in line with a bunch of other obsessed idiots for a unique Chicago experience is not necessarily a waste of time.

Like most things related to personal taste, it's all subjective. Factors like how much you like hot dogs vs your tolerance level for lines affect your thinking. When it comes to lines (which I abhor vehemently), I balance my desire for what awaits at the end of the line against the future availability of said item. If I know I can come back another time and have little or no wait, I'll leave and come back later. If the item will not be available later (such as a concert ticket), I really have to weigh my desire to get the item in the first place. Of course some lines, such as security at the airport, are unavoidable. For those I just grit my teeth and breathe deeply.

I also find that the longer I wait for a meal, the more critical of the meal I become. "I waited an hour for this?"

M_Six wrote:

Ann Fisher wrote: A thousand games of Crack Attack is a waste of time. Waiting in line with a bunch of other obsessed idiots for a unique Chicago experience is not necessarily a waste of time.

Like most things related to personal taste, it's all subjective. Factors like how much you like hot dogs vs your tolerance level for lines affect your thinking. When it comes to lines (which I abhor vehemently), I balance my desire for what awaits at the end of the line against the future availability of said item.

All very reasonable, and I find that lines can turn me off, especially if I'm waiting for some befuddled person to write a check, but sometimes the experience of waiting around with other people can actually approach being pleasurable in and of itself. Last week at Fox & Obel, I was waiting for my herring, and I had very pleasant conversations with a hyperactive person buying white truffles who wanted to talk about his pets (I believe he was intoxicated, but I find drunks rather amusing, too) and a person who was very interested in knowing more about the herring I planned to buy. I guess, under the right circumstances, the wait in line can be pleasurable, and one might just, you know, go with it, dude.

David “The 60s were very good to me” Hammond

The line question for me comes down to this:

Can I come back at another time to avoid waiting in line for something I really want? If the answer is yes, I'll skip the line and come back later. If the answer is no, I'll get in line and shut up.

kuhdo wrote: I also agree Doug's a nice guy and that his food is pretty good, though I do believe hot dogs and polish can be found just as good or better elsewhere for less.

So I can get a thuringer somewhere else? Is this Gene and Judes we're talking about? I'm not interested in a hot dog, but a Polish I'd consider.

Saturday, i was hungry. i was near Doug's. i drove down California. i saw the line. i kept on driving. i was still hungry.

kuhdo, u r right.

but if u've never been and/or if u travelled a long ways, it's worth it. i've been & i live close enough.

i'm gonna go stand in line now for fRedhots so i can be 1st.

As has been said many times, Hot Doug's is not about getting "a hot dog." But, I will say that my sons (ages 4 and 20 months) devour the regular dog like it's candy. And their dad and I happily devour our "special" dogs with equal abandon.

Yesterday (Saturday - looks like lots of LTHers had the same idea), we arrived at 11:30 and waited the 25 minutes it took to get to the counter and Doug's smiling face. I had visited the hotdougs.com site in advance to see what special dogs on offer would be...and I have to say that mine was FANTASTIC. Husband's was good but not phenomenal. He simply ate more of the duck fat fries, which yesterday were perfectly crispy, not limp in the least!

I had:
Roasted Artichoke Chicken Sausage with Curry-Butternut Squash Raita and Chopped Mixed Nuts

The toasted nuts on top of the delicious, creamy raita made it for me...but the sausage alone would have been enough to swoon over.

Husband had:
Jalapeno and Bacon Duck Sausage with Blood Orange Mustard and Saint Agur Cheese

No one has mentioned the buns...but that is the one hit-or-miss aspect of the Hot Doug's experience, for us.

And, I think we'd all agree that the best time to go is not Friday or Saturday during lunchtime...but I did it yesterday with great results. Next time I think we'll try the tater tots, even if we don't order the kids "mini dogs with tots" special.

It's my understand that he closes up around 4-430 daily. Anyone know why he doesn't hang through dinnertime?

Cogito wrote:It's my understand that he closes up around 4-430 daily. Anyone know why he doesn't hang through dinnertime?

I don't actually know why, but my guess is that Doug wants some iota of quality of life/9-5ish-ness.

aschie30 wrote:

Cogito wrote:It's my understand that he closes up around 4-430 daily. Anyone know why he doesn't hang through dinnertime?

I don't actually know why, but my guess is that Doug wants some iota of quality of life/9-5ish-ness.

Of he knows from experience that he doesn't get much of a dinner crowd.

I don't think he knows that from experience, because I don't think he ever was open for dinner. I think it's entirely a quality of life decision, made right at the beginning.

Cogito wrote:It's my understand that he closes up around 4-430 daily. Anyone know why he doesn't hang through dinnertime?

As Doug told me shortly after he opend up on Roscoe Street, "I want to have some sort of life outside of work."