Part 10 of a series in honor of National Hot Dog Month.
Every neighborhood in Chicagoland has a hot-dog stand, a gyros place or an Italian beef joint. Often, the menus aren’t much different from one to the next — typically encompassing all three Chicago favorites.
So how do you tell which is which? By the sign outside!
It’s the hot doggers who have the funniest names.
As we bid farewell to National Hot Dog Month, I thought I’d share a few of my favorite restaurant monikers:
-
Chubby Wieners, Lincoln Square
-
Dog Walk, Prospect Heights
-
Felony Franks, Near West Side
-
Franks for the Memories, Mundelein
-
Irving’s for Red Hot Lovers, Wilmette
-
Johnny’s Wee Nee Wagon, Markham
-
Mustard’s Last Stand, Evanston
-
Relish the Thought, Lakeview
-
Wiener and Still Champion, Evanston
-
Wiener Take All, Buffalo Grove
What hot-dog stand names make you smile?
Chicago hot dog series:
- The Chicago-style hot dog: ‘A masterpiece’
- Eat this! The Chicago hot dog, born in the Great Depression
- Know your wiener!
- Friday food porn: Seasons’ sexed-up hot dog
- It takes big buns to hold Chicago hot dogs
- Origins of neon relish and other Chicago hot dog conundrums
- Do only barbarians put ketchup on hot dogs?
- Chicago’s Schmidt the real Mr. Footlong Hot Dog Inventor
- Chicago’s Oscar Mayer has a way. . . .
- Relishing Chicago’s 10 funniest hot-dog joints
My favorite is Between the Buns, which is apparently a common name all over the country for unconnected hot-dog places. I recall one place from out West, in Arizona or California, whose sign featured a woman in a bikini sliding down the hot dog under which the following slogan was displayed: “Big wienies are better!” I believe there also were radio spots featuring a breathless woman declaring something like: “I never knew how good it could be until I got it at Between the Buns!”
In any event, a nice complement to In-N-Out Burger. I knew people who enjoyed taking an X-Acto to the chain’s bumper stickers and making them read: In-N-Out Urge.
Nice, digged