Chubby Weiners is coming to town...

I was driving down western today and saw that the old video store next to opart thai has shut down and the sign in the window reads "chubby's weiners is coming to town" the only info I could find was this site that has nothing but an email address and I dont know if its affiliated with the one opening on western and leland. Anyone heard of this place?

http://www.getachubby.net/?N=D

The domain is registered out of Long Beach, Ca. It takes some balls to open a hot dog stand in Chicago coming from California.

Chubby Weiners "We've Got Balls" could be their slogan.j/k

between "get a chubby" and "the hottest weiners in town," something tells me they already rejected your suggestion as too tame, grant.

Me, I'd go for "You'll love the taste of our foot-long."

Mistress L and i came across the same window in March after a lovely meal at Spoon Thai. Since i was in town on a house-hunting trip, i took it as a good omen for the move.

In any event, here is a picture. I note that "it will happen soon..."




I'd be a little disappointed if it's an imported hot dog place - would be kinda like bringing coals to Newcastle. Besides, with a name like "Chubby Wieners" and such an ominous sign, the mind reels with the possibilities. Sadly, that looks like a little hot dog at the end of the "soon."

I become a Chicago resident in eight days - hope to meet you all in due course!

-jim

Being a fan of diversity, I have no problem with an "imported hot dog place" if they bring something new to the party. As a lifelong Chicagoan, I was born and raised and continue to love my all beef, Kosher dogs, "dragged through the garden".

On the other hand I wouldn't mind an outpost of Papaya King somewhere in the city, or perhaps a Sabrett cart or two dotting downtown. The thought of that onion sauce served with brown mustard and a shot of kraut still makes me tingle all over.

Places like Pink's in L.A. bring a whole new perspective to the Hot Dog eating experience. Maybe even a Detroit Coney Island (how Coney Island moved to Detroit I'll never know), or a Cincinnati Chili Dog might be a nice change of pace.

On the other hand if this is an out of town chain trying to serve up the Chicago classic that so many other places are already doing so well, why bother? So, does anyone know what Chubby's focus will be?

Buddy

I've often thought that someone could do fairly well by opening up a hot doug's style eatery that specializes in regional sausages.

Have a wisconsin brat, all the chicago sausages (maxwell polish, hot dog, italian sausage), new york dogs, hot links, coney dogs, "LA-style", maybe cudighi from the UP/MN region.

The problem would be doing them all well.

There is a place like this, called Relish, in Kansas City. We visited last Christmas while visiting the wife's family for the holidays.

We shared a Chicago style dog that was fairly successful. The brown mustard was applied a bit more "artfully" than a local joint would ever take the time for (the finished product looked like an ad for the mustard, it was so pretty). Other than that they seemed to get all the other ingredients right. They grilled the Hot Dog as opposed to steaming or boiling. The owner explained that this was a concession to local tastes-KC folks would never put up with a boiled dog. He had done his Chicago research, checking out many local joints, including a trip to Hot Doug's.

He had other regional offerings as mentioned in my post above. The only area not represented was New York. He said he couldn't get a reliable commercial source for the dogs. He showed me a foil sample pouch sent to him by Sabrett, of what was supposed to be the famous New York Cart Onion Sauce. Without even opening the pouch, I could tell it was far too watery, more ketchup or tomato sauce than onion; nothing like the Onion Sauce I remember from years ago. Based on the unavailability of raw materials, he opted to leave the New York Dog off the menu. Too bad, it's been 27 years and I was in the mood.

Buddy

The America's Dog theme is regional hot dogs. www.americasdog.com
Navy Pier
Buckingham Fountain
Lincoln Park-Opening Soon

Chubby Weiners sounds like an adult video store.

CSD

Huh, interesting. I'm glad someone's doing it, although is there really such a thing as a buffalo dog?

We used the slogan "Six inches of fun in a bun!" Made a lot of people laugh.

The Buffalo dog isn't from Buffalo, NY. It's a Vienna Beef dog with hot buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and celery salt. A common term in western New York(Buffalo) for their hot dog is a Texas red hot. It's made with a coney sauce, raw chopped onions, and horse radish mustard. All the America's Dogs are Vienna Beef with the exception of their brat.

CSD

chicagostyledog wrote:The Buffalo dog isn't from Buffalo, NY. It's a Vienna Beef dog with hot buffalo sauce, blue cheese, and celery salt. A common term in western New York(Buffalo) for their hot dog is a Texas red hot. It's made with a coney sauce, raw chopped onions, and horse radish mustard. All the America's Dogs are Vienna Beef with the exception of their brat.

Yeah, see, to me that's like making a "Mexican Dog" by putting tostitos and guac on top of a vienna dog, when instead you could do something like this.

I'm talking an honest-to-goodness real attempt at making accurate copies of regional favorites. Obviously it would take a lot more work than what America's Dog is doing..

jimmy! wrote:I'd be a little disappointed if it's an imported hot dog place - would be kinda like bringing coals to Newcastle. Besides, with a name like "Chubby Wieners" and such an ominous sign, the mind reels with the possibilities. Sadly, that looks like a little hot dog at the end of the "soon."

I become a Chicago resident in eight days - hope to meet you all in due course!

-jim

Well, not to nit-pick, but. For a place to be 'COMING TO TOWN', by definition it would have to be imported, otherwise they'd already be in town.

Walked by today, and it appears Chubby Wieners is on the verge of opening. Most equipment, furniture and signage is in place.

Unfortunately, the menu board was blank--the only clues as to their offerings were some Gonnella bread boxes, a Vienna Beef sign and an awning at the counter that mentioned salads and sourdough bread.

By chance I found myself walking by Western & Leland, home-to-be of Chubby Wieners, very early Saturday morning and again that evening. I couldn't help noticing that sometime during the day a large portrait of Chubby himself had appeared on the window. The place did indeed look nearly ready to open. I thought their boast of "Famous Sourdough Buns" was perhaps undercut a bit by those stacks of Gonnella cartons. I'm hoping for the best and keep an open mind.

Signs in the window say grand opening today and open. There is a two for one special. There seemed to be a lot of employees and no customers around 4 this afternoon. I did not risk affecting my appetite for dinner and so did not stop in.

Was in the mood for hot dogs yesterday, so I thought I'd give the brand new Chubby Weiners a try...

Chubby's Chicago Style Dog w/ handful of fries


dog close-up


The dog looked longer than the standard Vienna. Definitely had the snap of casing though, and there was plenty of Vienna signage in the store, so I'll assume it was just a different variety of Vienna. Had I stayed there to eat, I would have asked.

Condiments were solid...i think the celery salt might have been missing and it was standard relish not neon green...but all quite tasty. This was definitely a good hot dog.

The fries were also a bit different. You can see in the pic that they had some skin left on them, which bode well...but they didn't live up to that initial hope. They reminded me of BK fries on the outside and then McDonald's hash brown on the inside...i kinda liked them, but I'm fairly forgiving with fries.

Altogether, I was happy with my visit. If the first impression is correct, Chubby Weiners looks like it'll be a good, maybe even great, neighborhood dog stand.


the menu:

So what does a FamousChubby Dog consist of?

If that's a CHUBBY WEINER then I'm a porn star.

midas wrote:If that's a CHUBBY WEINER then I'm a porn star.

No that's the regular dog...I didn't have the appetite for the chubby...

The real question being - do they have a liquor license? If not, how long until the ILC comes after them for advertising that they sell scotch?

clogoodie wrote:
the menu:

':lol:' OK, folks, I'm on it. I'm going to be the first person to order the capitalist pig and Johnny Walker. This would be the perfect first meal for my friends and I who are founding an urban faux-commune just 4 blocks away. No joke -- our realtor addresses us as "comrades".

I know there was a place out on the west coast, I believe, that offered a dog and a bottle of Dom for $250. So, I'll be interested to see if that is legit.

I popped into the little farmer's market in Lincoln Square this noon and then decided, old reliable Thai food or try Chubby Wieners... I shoulda stuck with Thai.

The dog is not natural casing, it had okay flavor, big problem was, it was served kind of lukewarm. Which is especially kind of bad when it's oversized-- more lukewarm bologna-dog flavor to dominate. If I want a genuinely chubby wiener with some real kick to it next time, I'm going to Superdawg.

Fries were not the realish looking ones depicted above, but some seriously coated gross fry product a la Burger King. They had skin, so I guess they're real potatoes, but something turned them into soft, mealy things which were like pureed Pringle's refried into fry shape. Yick.

In the ambience department, All My Children (which is unbelievably terrible in newer, Sex and the Cityish ways since the last time I saw an episode, during the Carter Administration) was loud enough that Pink Floyd would have asked them to turn it down.

Not a wise choice.

Mike,

You ordered the "FamousChubby" Dog, correct? Just making sure I didn't imagine natural casing on the regular standard dog I ate back in May...

I ordered the chubby, yes, but it's also possible the dogs have changed as the fries have.

Hmm....I stare at this place every day while waiting for the bus (which only comes half the time, but that's neither here nor there...).

I can't wait to try it, but it really bugs me that they can't spell "cheese."

I had a Polish there which was pretty good, as were the fries. I asked and they said that their dogs/sausages and Italian beef are all Vienna Beef products.

gleam wrote:Me, I'd go for "You'll love the taste of our foot-long."

You are a bad, bad man.