Wild Dogs, Evanston

Today my son and I were in downtown Evanston at lunchtime. we thought of heading south for the Wiener & Still Champion's excellent Polish and fries or going north to DD Dogs for a decent Italian Beef.

Instead we took the convenient choice and tried a new (to us) place called Wild Dogs on Chicago Avenue (it's just north of the North Shore Hotel).

It has the broad menu typical of many such places with burgers, gyros, chicken, etc. But for a first time we like to check out the standards. My son had his usual double dog, while I ordered a Polish, and we split an IB and some fries.

Dave said the hot dog was good -- similar to Poochie's. I liked the Polish. It was nicely charred and had plenty of flavor -- almost as good as the Weiner's. Both were in poppy seed buns.

The Italian Beef wasn't in the same league. The first warning was that it was delivered in the ubiquitous paper/foil wrapping. We were eating in, so we got it out of the wrapper right away. It was dipped and had some flavor, but was nothing special. I've had worse and I've had better.

The sweet peppers were, surprisingly, a mix of red and green, and they weren't boiled to mush. Not bitter flavor, but unfortunately not much flavor at all. They get points for trying.

The fries were OK. Nothing like the skin-on fries at the Wiener, just normal decent fries.

Quick summary: if you're in downtown Evanston it's a good place for hot dogs and Polish. If you want an IB, head north to DD Dogs, or at least tell then not to wrap it.

Wild Dogs
1625 Chicago Ave
Evanston
84-869-9453

The Wiener and Still Champion
802 Dempster St
Evanston
847-869-0100

DD Dogs
825 Noyes St
Evanston
847-864-1909

Critical question: did they have neon-green or dark-green pickle relish?

I was more focused on the sausage flavor than the look of the relish. I think it was neon, but don't hold me to that!