I love love love crossing off bookmarks and there's nothing quite like deleting one from nearly a year and a half ago. Yes, it's April 2012 and Yelp tells me that I've had Matt's bookmarked since December 2010 after reading Cassandra's ROTD. http://www.yelp.com/biz/matts-chicago-dog-charlotte#hrid:Kn7dQhdcPMfAv-UTRkQjxA. And so with my hot dog craving unsatisfied from several attempts, here I am.
Popped in towards the end of the lunch hour and was able to find a seat to drop off my backpack. At the register, I went with the eponymous Chicago Dog of course. But I knew that one hot dog wouldn't fill me up, so I had a Carolina Dog to go with it. And a Diet Coke, to cancel out all those bad calories.
The Chicago Dog was made almost perfectly traditionally. An all-beef hot dog on a poppy seed bun, topped with sport peppers (a little too hot for my taste, I took one bite and had to put them to the side), tomato wedges, chopped onions, yellow mustard, celery salt and that green relish that practically glowed in the dark. The only ding is that the pickle was a slice (lengthwise) rather than a spear. It doesn't matter to me personally, but a Chicago Dog connoisseur might be upset. Whatever, it tasted AWESOME.
The Carolina Dog was ON THE MONEY. Also an all-beef hot dog, it was topped chili, mustard, chopped onion, and cole slaw. Messy as all get out, but I was prepared and didn't wear any of it home.
After seeing the mentions of the fries, I skipped 'em. Free refills on the soda. If it's a nice day (and it was!) take it outside.
Oh, and that pesky craving for hot dogs? Totally slayed.