Sam's Red Hot [Pictures]

LTH,

Met Steve Z at Sonny's, Hungry Rabbi's pick of the worst slice of pizza in Chicago. Yea, I know, odd. Anyway, we were saved from ourselves as Sonny's was closed. We were close to Honey 1, always a good choice, but wanted to try something new/close so we tossed around a few places and, surprisingly, neither of us had ever been to Sam's Red Hot's.

Sam's Red Hot's


In the interest of honesty I should admit I thought Sam's Red Hot's was on GreaseFreak.com, which Germuska linked to yesterday, which it was not. Either way, lucky break as Sam's was a damn fine dog. Natural casing Vienna, steamed no poppy seed bun, fries wrapped with the hot dog, a la the Jimmy's/Gene and Jude school.

Sam's Red Hot



Steve Z is not a crinkle cut fry fan, I kind of liked them. It's not that I don't prefer cut in-house skin on fries, but unless a place, Al's for example, is twice frying it's hard to get them crisp. I prefer a well made crisp prefab fry, which is easier to get crisp as it is already par cooked, to a limp soggy hand cut fry any day.

In retrospect, maybe we were lucky, we avoided bad pizza and found a new, at least to us, hot dog stand.

Enjoy,
Gary

Sam's Red Hot
Armitage 1/2-Block East of Western

Wow. Soggy Sam's! Not something I would ever have thought to get a viewing on LTH. This is truely a 'hoody red hot stand. When I first moved to Chicago (for the first time) in 2001 I was living (or I guess squatting would be more accurate) about 150' from Sam's. I know I ate there more than I should have. THe funny thing is that, after the polish sausages, the tamales are probably the best things the serve. I did always like the dogs but I found that they seemed to come out much beter if you asked them to wrap the fries separate from the dogs. For some reason, even the 2 minuet walk turned the buns into paste when wrapped with the fries. This, however, was never a problem at Polk and Western when the dogs and fries are thrown in together.

It would not be called "Soggy" Sam's if this were not the case.

And personally, I have always loved the crinkle fries at Soggy Sam's. Though they turn from fantastic to crap as soon as they begin to cool.
Jamie

Stagger wrote:For some reason, even the 2 minute walk turned the buns into paste when wrapped with the fries.

Nice pics, Gary. When the Western Blue Line stop was my daily stop, I had been known to stop for a dog or two. I'm in stevez's camp with the fries, but it's a good dog.

Stagger wrote:Wow. Soggy Sam's! Not something I would ever have thought to get a viewing on LTH. This is truely a 'hoody red hot stand.

Oh, we've got a lot of love for 'hoody hot dog/polish stands around here. Here's a quick tour of three of my favorite threads:

Polk & Western Hot-Dogs [pics]
Al's Red Hots, Oldest Hot Dog Stand In Chicago [Pictures]
Which Polish is best: Jim's Original or Maxwell St Express?

I also have fond memories of the Dog House 2 interlude at Beefathon 3.

Best,
Michael

Sam's is probably the closest restaurant to my house; I woulda flipped if I'd seen G Wiv and Steve Z there.

I echo Stagger...I rank Sam's among the worse-er hot dog stands I've tried. Don't get me wrong, I go there all the time, and a bad Chicago dog's better than a lot of mediocre other food, but Sam's is wildly inconsistent. The buns are always soggy, but sometimes they're half stale, sometimes not. Toppings are fine, but nothing outstanding, and I must confess a preference to the full-garden variety with celery salt. BUT! It's still good, and it's refreshingly not a self-consciously po-mo hot dog stand, for which I think it deserves credit. I mean, $8 at Weiner's Circle is a good deal, but $2 at Sam's will fill you up just the same.

Of course, if you were in the mood for pizza, you missed going to John's
http://tinyurl.com/z28rs
(one of Chicago's finer thin crust pizzas)

eatchicago wrote:Oh, we've got a lot of love for 'hoody hot dog/polish stands around here. Here's a quick tour of three of my favorite threads:

Yes but all of those places are *good* I've driven down to Polk and Western dogs before... msotly for a milkshake at Polk and Western Ice Cream, but still. I know LTH is all about finding that hidden gem and much bad food is eaten in the search for great food. While one can certainly do worse than Soggy Sams, I still probably woudn't have made it a frequent stop if I hadn't had to walk around it to get home for the night from the blue line .

Coincidentally, I made my first visit to Sam’s Red Hots last Sunday. I was on my way to the Map Room for a glass of Luciernaga and a Hot Doug’s ticket (thanks for the heads up, griffin!) and thought I’d try somewhere new. I can well believe that consistency is not their strength and understand why it’s called Soggy Sam’s. It was near closing time and it seemed like the dog had been floating an awfully long time but the bun had been steaming longer. Soggy pretty much sums it up. I couldn’t get too upset about the dog because it cost only about two bucks (with lots of fries) and it served its purpose. Oh, the Luciernaga was very nice indeed.

All the time, when enjoying some lucious Margies, I used to look and wonder at this place. Wonder, yes, wanna try, no.

Anyways, what intrigued me, was until a few years ago, they advertised Kosher Palistine (or Palistine Kosher*)or some other rarely seen brand of hot dog. It's obviously Vienna now, from the sign, but anyone remember something else?

*No joke something like this was the name of a hot dog variety in Chicago at one time not an off-shoot of Peace Now.

You sure it's a natural casing dog? Looks like a skinless dog to me.

gp60004 wrote:You sure it's a natural casing dog? Looks like a skinless dog to me.

Gus,

I think you've said that about every hot dog picture I've posted.

Hot Dog Cam @ Sam's Red Hot


Enjoy,
Gary

Gary

Still not buying it. Looking at both a natural casing and skinless dog now. Natural casing dogs are usually tied/linked together making the ends look pointy when they are pulled apart while the skinless dogs are individually made looking more like the first pic that you posted.

Then again..i've been wrong before.

gp60004 wrote:Then again..i've been wrong before.

Gus,

But, as it turns out, not this time. I went back to Sam's Red Hot's today and you were absolutely correct, it is a skinless hot dog, not natural casing. I still liked the dog, nothing soggy at 'Soggy Sam's' today, but I ate within 1-minuite of purchase.

In a funk of self doubt I then went back to Al's Red Hot, which I also said was natural casing, and you disagreed with. Happy to say Al's is natural casing. You are hitting .500.

Al's Red Hot (8.25.06)


Enjoy,
Gary

Vital Information wrote:Anyways, what intrigued me, was until a few years ago, they advertised Kosher Palistine (or Palistine Kosher*)or some other rarely seen brand of hot dog. It's obviously Vienna now, from the sign, but anyone remember something else?

*No joke something like this was the name of a hot dog variety in Chicago at one time not an off-shoot of Peace Now.

Yes, it was Palestine Kosher. I believe they went out of business maybe ten years ago. Here’s part of the Sausage section of the Yellow Pages from 50 years ago. There are some other interesting entries. Nottoli is still around, now at 7652 W Belmont. Oscar Mayer and their Wienermobiles left Chicago about 15 years ago. Both Parker House and Polka are still making sausages at their original locations. And, of course, Vienna is still around but no longer on Halsted.

Soon to be painted yellow with red trim, the tiny shack that was formerly home to Sam's Red Hots for more than 70 years has been replaced by Jr.'s Red Hots.

https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/2017050 ... -beef-jobs

I'm a diehard Red Hot Ranch guy, but it will be nice to have a full dragged through the garden option as well, especially with the new place using Vienna Beef instead of Red Hot Chicago like Sam's did.

Rene G wrote:

Vital Information wrote:Anyways, what intrigued me, was until a few years ago, they advertised Kosher Palistine (or Palistine Kosher*)or some other rarely seen brand of hot dog. It's obviously Vienna now, from the sign, but anyone remember something else?

*No joke something like this was the name of a hot dog variety in Chicago at one time not an off-shoot of Peace Now.

Yes, it was Palestine Kosher. I believe they went out of business maybe ten years ago. Here’s part of the Sausage section of the Yellow Pages from 50 years ago. There are some other interesting entries. Nottoli is still around, now at 7652 W Belmont. Oscar Mayer and their Wienermobiles left Chicago about 15 years ago. Both Parker House and Polka are still making sausages at their original locations. And, of course, Vienna is still around but no longer on Halsted.


Last year my wife sent me a selfie in front of the Wienermobile at Mariano's on Cumberland in Park Ridge. Two young ladies in charge no more little Oscar but thy do still travel the country and yes she got a Wiener Whistle.