rev:text
| - There's nothing like a solid neighborhood hot dog joint. I love going to Scooter's Dawg House out in Mentor, but that's not exactly in my neighborhood...and while I really wanted the hot dog place in Coventry to be my neighborhood hot dog place, it never seemed to be open when I wanted to go there! (That place was sorta like Guns 'N Roses--when they're doing their thing, they're amazing, but they don't really do their thing with much regularity!) Fortunately, I think that I've struck gold on the west side, because The Happy Dog serves up some of the best hot dogs that I've had in a long time.
Honestly, my biggest problem with The Happy Dog is deciding what to get on my hot dog! There are SO many different toppings--I think there were at least 50! I spent at least 10 minutes deciding, and my choices were chorizo chili, smoked gouda, and grilled onions. My wife Sheila F. got chocolate mole sauce. Both of our dogs were delicious. One nice thing about The Happy Dog is that the dogs themselves are substantial--people go nuts about Skyline Chili, and while I enjoy it for what it is, I always feel like a treasure hunter when I eat there because it's always a rewarding experience to find the miniscule hot dog in the bun amidst the chili and cheese. Fortunately, The Happy Dog serves 'em up thick and meaty.
For side dishes, my wife got the tater tots and I got the fries. There's a wide variety of dipping sauces for them too; I had the chili grape jelly sauce and my wife had the garlic aioli (which was glorious).
This place also serves up a wide variety of beers and drinks at decent prices; we didn't have one when we went, but I'm sure we'll grab some in the future.
We were told that there was supposed to be live music, and my law school classmate who we saw while dining spoke very highly of the band, but by the time we were done eating, both my wife and I had such serious food comas that we decided it was best to head out before we fell asleep at the table. From what I've seen on the website, they have live music pretty often, so maybe we'll hear it on the many future visits that we will make to this establishment in the future.
The Happy Dog definitely makes its patrons very happy people, and you'll most likely be happy as a clam if you go there!
|