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| - I've read several reviews of this place and others and I'm getting mighty tired of people from Chicago or New York or wherever blasting local restaurants because they don't have "authentic" food from their home town; pizza, hotdogs or whatever. This is PHOENIX. It's not Chicago. It's not New York. It's not St Paul, Minnesota (although for half the freakin' year it's hard to believe that last one). If you want authentic stuff from your home town then why the heck did you move here? I'm an Aussie and I never shoot places down simply because the hamburgers and fries don't taste like what I grew up with. If I don't like the food I say so. If I don't like the restaurant or service I say so, and vice versa. If only people could judge based on the individual pros or cons of restaurants and their ~local~ competition, and not some rose-coloured memory they have of sometime years ago or someplace three thousand miles away, things would be a lot fairer. Plus, this is a HOT DOG place, not some haute cuisine dining establishment! Exactly how different do Chicago buns or pickles taste?! If I maintained this same philosophy, every single Indian restaurant I've eaten at in Phoenix would get a single star rating. See how this works?
Rant over. Went here for dinner the other night, arrived at just after 6pm. A lady with iridescent blue eyes greeted us and was very friendly in discussing the different options. Truth to tell, there aren't many - Chicago Style, one or two other styles, and a kids menu with three or four combo options. The lady noticed our toddler and said that if he sat on the other side of the table she would turn cartoons on for him on one of the tellys. We ordered our stuff and out it came in a few minutes. First plus were the fries. If you've read my talk thread here (http://j.mp/ovV41z) you'll know how I feel about crispy fries. Props to this place for serving actually fresh fries (albeit with the skin on). Yes, they were a bit oily - you get that when fries are fried in oil. Yes, they were a bit soggy - you get that when fries aren't pre-processed by blanching. These fries are what you get when 1) you chop a potato and 2) fry it thereafter. Try it sometime. Go to In-N-Out, same thing. If you want crispy fries, go somewhere else. Me, I could have eaten them all. day. long.
Hotdogs were okay - it was my first go at Chicago style. I got two. Pickle, tomato was fine. The relish was sort of a bright fluorescent green - bizarre, but tasted ok. I didn't get the sport peppers as I had had jalapeno for lunch. One mistake was to forget to ask for no celery salt - I hate the taste of celery and the salt spoiled the dogs for me. I wiped off what I could. Still finished both. The wife enjoyed hers. She had a tray of chili fries - very good indeed. The kid wolfed down his dog and half his fries, as expected.
All in all, a great meal. I was checking in on Yelp when the wife told me that they had already closed. Sure as shinola it was after 7. I read on their facebook page that they're planning to stay open a little longer. 7pm shutdown is definitely way too early and puts this place dangerously close to White Eagle IMO in terms of stupid business hour planning. But, 6pm is fine for us for a family dinner and it's not like we got bounced out at closing time. Anyone looking to have dinner later, just stand in front of this place and then turn your heads left and right. Several options. You know, or else just move back to Chicago where everything is so much better.
I would have given this place a solid 3 star average, but it nosed up to 4 due to the thoughtfulness of the counter gal and the quality of the fries. Screw authentic, the food was good. And now I've half a mind to go eat at Portillo's in Chicago and then slam it on Yelp because the hotdogs didn't taste like the dogs I ate back in Phoenix. Oh wait, I said rant over, didn't I? (sips peppermint tea expressionlessly)
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