incite wrote:Ate at Frank n' Dawgs last week and enjoyed myself.

Seared Swine Pork sausage, white wine pickled pumpkin, grape & smoked onion relish, candied ginger & sage aioli & dijon mustard

This Iron Dawg challenger is from Vie, and tasted great. Components worked together perfectly, but I had an issue with the casing being a bit too flimsy.

Great shots! Thank you, for posting them.

This is the sausage from Vie's Nathan Sears. I'm really sorry I missed it. All month I was aware of the fact that it was being offered but could not carve out time to get over there and try it. If I'm not mistaken, this month's challenger is also from Vie, from Paul Virant.

=R=

I think of this place less as an alternative to Hot Doug's as I do a complement. Some days I crave Hot Doug's, which I believe makes a simpler product with more distinctive dogs, and some days I crave Franks n Dawgs, where the find the meat often gets overwhelmed by the, well, other meat (as well as all the other various goodies), but which makes for a real delicious mess. I feel lucky that I'm regularly able to hit both during their various lulls. And also that I can still see my feet.

I took a much needed break from Seder preparations and met a friend at Hot Doug's. We thought that between Passover and Easter weekend, there wouldn't be a crowd . . . wrong! Line was as long as ever.

So we headed over to Franks 'n Dawgs, and the service and food made me feel a bit guilty for not having headed over there in the first place. No, I'm not saying one of the two is better than the other. I'm simply saying that Franks 'n Dawgs is so good that it really should stand on its own and probably deserves more attention than it gets. I just don't understand how there could be 50 or so people waiting in line at Hot Doug's when I can walk right up to the counter at Franks 'n Dawgs. I don't see that big a difference.

Anyway, we shared three dogs - 1) the Brunch Dog - Slagel farms pork loin breakfast sausage with smoked bacon, fried egg & drizzled with maple mayo; 2) the Roaring Buffalo Chicken - truffle chicken sausage, celery root slaw, Roaring 40s blue cheese and house made hot sauce; and 3) the Double Ducker - duck sausage, duck confit salad, pickled shiitake mushrooms, shaved torchon au foie gras & maple mustard.

I loved the flavor of the sausage and bacon in the Brunch Dog, and the beautifully fried egg and maple mayo really made for a complete and delicious brunch. And all of the duck and foie gras in the Double Ducker made for a delicious and rich treat. I enjoyed, but was a little less excited about, the Roaring Buffalo Chicken sandwich. The accompaniments were all nice, but I thought the sausage itself was a little lacking in flavor (but I wonder if I can say the same thing with chicken wings).

I also think that F&D does a little better job these days with the buns - just a little more toasted than in the early days, and just enough to deliver a great sandwich. All said, a really terrific lunch and one that I've grown to expect at Franks 'n Dawgs.

Vitesse98 wrote:I think of this place less as an alternative to Hot Doug's as I do a complement. Some days I crave Hot Doug's, which I believe makes a simpler product with more distinctive dogs, and some days I crave Franks n Dawgs, where the find the meat often gets overwhelmed by the, well, other meat (as well as all the other various goodies), but which makes for a real delicious mess. I feel lucky that I'm regularly able to hit both during their various lulls. And also that I can still see my feet.

One of the big differences is that Hot Doug's doesn't make its own sausages while Franks 'n Dawgs does, at least for some of the menu. (Some of the others come from Boar's Head, IIRC.)

I was amused, on my last visit, to discover that Franks 'n Dawgs has given in to local pressure and added the "Chicagoesque": "All natural (nitrate free & uncured) 100% beef artisan 1/8 pound skinless frank, house pickles, cherry tomato relish, caramelized onions & beer mustard."

However, as I overheard on that visit, they're still getting arguments from customers who expect a canonical Chicago dog.

The Chicagoesque has been on their menu since the day they opened.

gleam wrote:The Chicagoesque has been on their menu since the day they opened.

No, they had a jumbo dog, but it wasn't called by that name and the toppings were different. Soon after opening, they added an ice-cream dessert shaped like a Chicago dog. If you look upthread you can can see the discussion about how they didn't have a Chicago dog, but something was in the works. I also talked to Alex Brunacci about it at the time.

jimswside wrote:

Cogito wrote:

jimswside wrote:Jumbo dog, when I go to a hot dog place I enjoy getting a "Chicago style dog" to accompany my other meat choice. Not available here yet, my jumbo dog came with beer braised red cabbage, and a nice mustard.

Are you saying they couldn't put chopped onions, relish, mustard and peppers on your jumbo dog?

thats is correct, those items other than yellow mustard from the pump were not available. I asked for them to toss anything they could on the jumbo dog, and it was served with beer braised red cabbage, and that other mustard thats it.

I was told a version of a "chicago style dog" was in the planning stages.

Okay. How about this: it's been on the menu for at least a year and a half, and I think closer to two years. They opened in Spring of 2010 and I know it was on the menu that summer.

Curious if anyone has any recent feedback on this place? Thanks.

I've been a couple times in the last month. It's still serving dope sausages.

Love,
John

Thank you!

I finally made it here and loved it. My wife and I split the Reuben Pulaski and the Sogni di Porcellino A pork, Calabrian chili & fontina cheese sausage, pickled fennel, arugula, pistachio & cured tomato aioli). Really amazing. What's more, we walked right in at lunchtime, ordered, found seats, all the while there was probably a very long line outside of Hot Doug's.

Hello. I rounded up a group of coworkers to check out Frank N'Dawgs tonight. Of the four of us, only I had been there previously (the last time was about 2 years ago). We got in at around 5:30, there was only 1 couple in line in front of us. Otherwise, no other people in the place. I noticed the Australian owner wasn't there.

I ordered the Julia's Love Child: Steak au poivre sausage, garnished with shallots pickled with a bouquet garni, sauteed asparagus in a shallot, garlic and butter, arugula and finally, our pièce de résistance, a Dijon cognac crème fraîche.

I also got a side of the poutine: Hand Cut Fries, Matilda Beer Batterd Cheese Curds, Duck Confit, Foie Gras Gravy & Scallion Greens

On my prior trips, I remember really enjoying the food. This time around, not so much. I felt the sausage was on the dry side and not that flavorful. The toppings were okay, but a messy affair. It's really difficult to get a bite of the sausage, bun and toppings in a single bite. It's a dish worth eating with a knife and fork. To be fair, this has always been the case with my prior sausages at this point. I can live with that, but not a dry sausage lacking in flavor.

Regarding the poutine, I've never had poutine before. I was underwhelmed. The fries themselves were good. Thin cut, and pretty crispy. I imagined the fois gras gravy being thick and decadent; it was actually a thin, runny mess that lacked any flavor. It's not clear to me where the fois gras fits into the gravy. The duck confit was good, although on the salty side. I'm not sure if that's typical of confit. However, since the fries and gravy were seriously lacking salt, the confit helped add some flavor. Lastly the cheese curds were a mess. I've never had deep fried cheese curds before. I thought they would be similar to a deep fried cheese stick. However, I felt I was eating a shell of overfried batter with nothing in the center. It appears that the curds, just melted into oblivion.

My friends all ordered the turduckin since the counter man said this was the most popular. They also ordered sides of creole red beans and triple truffle waffle fries. They enjoyed the waffle fries which had a nice crisp to them. The creole red beans were flavorful, but the cornbread, which my friend asked for on the side was a dry, sad mess. Looked like she got the corners left in the cornbread pan. They felt the sausage was lacking in flavor, and none of them enjoyed the flavor of the garlic herb aioli.

If i recall correctly, the last time I was there, they were serving food in baskets. Now the baskets are gone and replaced with real dishes. Also, we were told that they have stopped serving the lobster roll as of about 1 month ago since there wasn't enough interest in it. They need to update their online menu which still indicates that the lobster roll is served on weekends.

All in all, it just doesn't seem as good as I remember. My friends certainly won't be in a rush to go back. They definitely feel the sausages they've had from the Haute Sausage food truck that comes down to Hyde Park serves better quality sausages. I might give it one more shot, and try something else on the menu before giving up on them completely.

Franks 'N Dawgs is for sale. The name and trademark are not, but the restaurant and equipment are. Listed back in August.

Franks 'N' Dawgs Closing Temporarily

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20150212 ... gs-closing

According to Eater they are not closing (at least not immediately)...

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/2/12/8029 ... mains-open

I"m not surprised they are moving, its a terrible location. Only way to eat there is if you are already in the area and walking. I remember the previous hot dog stand there had a parking lot next to it, but now its wall to wall shopping and tons of traffic and congestion. I've wanted to go for years and have driven by the place literally 1000s of times and have never stopped. That's a pretty good indication the location sucks.

Not happy the move is to the west loop since i live on the north side, but I understand the desire to be there.

shakes wrote:I"m not surprised they are moving, its a terrible location. Only way to eat there is if you are already in the area and walking. I remember the previous hot dog stand there had a parking lot next to it, but now its wall to wall shopping and tons of traffic and congestion. I've wanted to go for years and have driven by the place literally 1000s of times and have never stopped. That's a pretty good indication the location sucks.

Not happy the move is to the west loop since i live on the north side, but I understand the desire to be there.

Agreed. Hot Doug's got all the love (and count me a big fan) but F&D turns out a great product - and their "gourmet" sausages are made in house, to boot. The location, though, sucks - which explains why I don't go there nearly as much as I would like. I look forward to a new and more accessible location.

Coogles wrote:According to Eater they are not closing (at least not immediately)...

http://chicago.eater.com/2015/2/12/8029 ... mains-open

I just drove by. The lights were off. No better bread anywhere!

Agreed. Hot Doug's got all the love

We could start a whole thread on this subject: Hot Doug's was not popular simply because of the food. Sure, the food was good - but the magic was in the whole package. The same guy at the counter every day for 10 years, the fun names, the off-beat location, the food network appearances, the foie protest, the "I don't want to be famous or rich, I just want to serve sausages" Doug character....

Take Doug's exact recipes, in fact take his whole restaurant, plant it elsewhere (middle of Lakeview), someone else owning/running it - it wouldn't be 1/2 as busy. I wouldn't even expect lines. Restaurants with cult followings generally don't do well with expansion (many never even try - when you win the lottery, you don't buy more lotto tickets). When you've got a line down the block, you know that a good deal of that fame/fortune is luck & circumstance. Again, not to take away from anyones hard work - but there are a lot of people that work hard, have better locations, and better food that aren't ever full. After you do your research, create your menu, plan/design your restaurant, etc. - you just have to get on your knees and pray to the restaurant Gods that it will all work. And usually, it doesn't. Moving Franks N Dawgs may or may not make it more successful - I went a few times and thought the food was fine, but didn't feel the soul of the place....

As a sort of un-realted comment, I drive by Frank Meats Patty daily and it's usually empty.

rubbbqco wrote:

As a sort of un-realted comment, I drive by Frank Meats Patty daily and it's usually empty.

which is too bad cause its a really good place. Been there a few times already. Count me as someone who is glad Doug's is gone and FMP is there instead. I've lived a half mile away since 2008 and within a mile for the previous 15 years and have been to Doug's exactly one time. Waiting in line for a sausage is pure idiocy IMO. PLus I have this thing called a job so Doug's hours never worked out for me.

FMP reminds me of Red Hot Ranch, albeit I think the burgers at RHR are a little better.

We've had two meals within the past three months or so here, both Saturday lunches, and we are sad to say that they were both quite disappointing. We have been long time fans. But it seems things are going way down hill in execution and after two such instances it's not likely we'll be back. Last time we were served a corn dog in which the batter was still raw; this time all three orders of fries were pale and tasted of raw potato (so not cooked long enough and not cooked at a high enough temp); truffle fries last time and truffle mac-n-cheese this time both way, way over-truffled; both times the brussels sprouts salad has degenerated into something that is mostly a bowl of cheese; both times the sausages seemed as good as ever but the toppings were applied or executed with less careful hands. So basically every dish is lacking balance. Neither time was the place crowded. Wonder if Saturdays are just a bust or if things are declining in general.

Annak, are you referring to Franks N Dogs or Hot "G" Dog?

Franks n' Dawgs, per the name of the thread.

annak wrote:Franks n' Dawgs, per the name of the thread.

boy, i'm glad i caught this post. i thought franks n' dawgs closed in february, when they announced their move.

In other creative hot dog and sausage news: the popular Franks 'N' Dawgs is no more on Clybourn, news which slipped through the cracks as it shuttered on June 14.

http://chicago.eater.com/2016/7/27/1229 ... tter-intel