The Dog Days of Connecticut - Hot-Doggin' it, day 3 (part 6)

 July 30 2011, Day three of  "The Great 2011 CT Hot Dog Tour"  continued... (back to part 5)

Athenian II Diner

No need to get up at the crack of dawn this morning as our first scheduled stop (a sheep's milk cheese dairy) doesn't open until 10am, so we get up when we feel like it and head to North Haven to the Athenian II Diner for a leisurely breakfast.

I'm kind of a stodgy traditionalist as far as "diners" are concerned, I guess.  To me diners  are basically supposed to look like old art deco railroad dining cars.  The Athenian II looked to me pretty much like your ordinary, every-day run of the mill, site-built, brick-and-mortar modern family restaurant - outside and in.

I said as much to Jim and he immediately told me I was a complete idiot.  Of course he didn't come right out and say it - he is WAY too nice a guy to be so brutally honest (besides, I was doing the driving and had the rental car keys in my pocket and he probably didn't want to get left there).

What he actually did was educate me, reading from a guide book all about the company who manufactured it, how the modular pieces were constructed, transported and assembled, concluding with a full architectural review of the style in which it was built. OK, OK!  I give up! It's a real DINER!

Having settled the building's pedigree, we moved on to the business at hand: breakfast. The menu offered pretty standard faire with a bit of eclectic ethnicity here and there but (for a place called the "Athenian") no real Greek influence I could discern.  I ordered Challa Bread French Toast, Cynthia had a griddled cheese Danish with a side of sausage, and Jim asked for 2 eggs scrambled, toast and home fries.

The food came out fast and looked good, if a bit sanitized.  I don't know what I was expecting but it all seemed very plain and boring. 

Perhaps the problem stemmed from the inevitable comparisons to yesterday's outstanding breakfast at O'Rourke's Diner in Middletown. Definitely no soft-shelled crab on this breakfast menu!

Regardless, we tucked into it hoping for the best.  Cynthia was the first to comment.  She said that her Danish was "weird".  It looked pretty good - nicely browned but she was right, it tasted flat.  We came to the conclusion that we had expected it to be sweet and it wasn't.  Not even a little bit.  How very strange.  Her sausages were the skinless type.  OK flavor but they had been cooked a while ago and I thought held too long.

I was also disappointed with my French toast.  I found it undercooked.  Here my dining companions again disagreed with me completely.  Both C&J thought it was very good French toast and, in fact, ended up eating most of it off my plate.  I don't like well-done, dry French toast either but this was just plain snotty to me.  What I called "snotty" they called "custardy".  Different strokes for different folks. 

I was also seriously off-put by the fake butter that accompanied my breakfast (GROSS!!) and the little packets of Smucker's "breakfast syrup" on the plate.  I admit that I am a total Maple syrup snob.  I grew up watching my grandfather make the real stuff and nothing else ever appeared on our tables at home.  While I can fully appreciate that most restaurants can't just put jugs of real maple syrup on their tables without going out of business within a week, there is no reason why it can not be offered as a paid upgrade option for those of us who care.  This affront seems more egregious when one has traveled thousands of miles to a region that makes some of the best maple syrup in the world.

Jim said his breakfast was "fine" but most of the pasty home fries were still on his plate when we left.

My Score: 5 out of 10.  I would (kind of ) like to go back and give them another shot, but not enough to do anything about it.  Too many other fish in the ocean.

Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm

Mark, the cheese maker at Cato Farm where we had visited yesterday, suggested that we try and make it to Sankow's farm in Lyme if at all possible.  Officially known as Beaver Brook Farm, the Sankows,  who have kept the 175 acres in the family since 1917, have developed it into a multi-faceted agricultural enterprise.  Largely a sheep operation now, they are known for their sheep and cow's milk cheeses as well as wool products and meat.

It was a gorgeous back-road drive to the farm through cute hamlets and breath-taking New England scenery.  The amount of greenery and vegetation was all but overwhelming to this desert rat and I admit to making some uncalled-for comments about deer ticks and Lyme disease.  Give rattlesnakes, tarantulas and scorpions any day! 

Upon our arrival at the farm we were greeted by a classic Connecticut farmstead scene: White clapboard house, red barns, big trees, rolling grass lands etc. 

And sheep.  We were greeted by two very curious young sheep.

Knowing it was a long shot (it was Saturday morning after all and we didn't have an appointment) I proceeded to the cheese shop in hopes of meeting one of the owners or cheese makers.  Unfortunately I was out of luck.  Everybody was at the various farmers markets they work and the only one left on the farm was a very nice, if somewhat clueless, intern who had been working there just 2 weeks.

She said for us to feel free to wander around but could not give me permission to go into the cheese-making rooms (completely understandable).  I did get a couple of photos of the cheese room through a window.

We also checked out the milking parlor and the wool store.

With nothing much more for us to do there, I bought some cheese from the store and we headed to our next destination.

Bobby's Place

We were running a little ahead of schedule (not that we actually had a firm schedule) and got to Bobby's Place in Niantic about 30 minutes before it opened at 11am.  Cynthia immediately spotted some "shopportunities" and ducked into one of the nearby gee-gaw shops while Jim and I parked ourselves at the sidewalk umbrella table of a little café-bakery.  It was already getting quite warm and soon Jim went in and bought a donut from the bakery. I'm not sure if he did this to get cool, because he felt guilty about taking up their table space (not that it was needed) or if he was still needing more breakfast.

With a good view of Bobbies, we waited and watched a woman working inside and then come out to open the umbrellas on their picnic tables.  Eventually we saw a couple approach the order window and leave with some food so we headed on over.

Bobby's Place is a real hot dog STAND in the truest sense.  This is because the single, solitary person squeezed into the tiny kitchen has to STAND all the time.  There is barely room to turn around, let alone sit down.  Bobby's is located in a converted drive-through Photo Mat kiosk.

Cute as a button, Bobby's is a testament to Yankee ingenuity and logistical planning.  I've worked in some small kitchens before but this is amazing.  This is obviously not a place were a lot of from-scratch cooking is done but it looks like a perfect adaptation for a hot dog joint.

The menu is pretty standard for the area but we don't really need to look any way.

Cynthia and Jim split a plain dog, I order a kraut one and we settled in at one of the tables provided.  It's a lovely morning and we're less than a block from Long Island Sound, with a good view of the water.  Most excellent ambiance!

The dogs came up and we head around to the side of the little building to the condiment bar (mustard, relish,ketchup and paper napkins) to load up.

C&J's dog looks good but mine is scary.  The dog itself looks alright but the sauerkraut is nasty looking.  It's kind of a dark grey color and very unappetizing.

It almost looks like it was made from purple cabbage - but it wasn't.  I take a sniff... nothing.  No characteristic sour/salty/fermented aroma.  I'm not sure if this is bad or good.  At least it didn't smell rotted.  I go to take a small taste.  Cynthia: "Are you NUTS?" Me: "I just want to try it".  Cynthia: "It looks gross!"  Me: "I don't want to waste it".  Cynthia: "Its a $3 hot dog...THROW IT AWAY!"

Well, she was right and I did chuck it but not before eating most of the meat(which was pretty good) and taking another small sample of the kraut.  It was as tasteless as it was scent-less. I'm not even sure how one could get sauerkraut to taste like shredded paper, let alone achieve such an unnatural color. My best guess was that kraut dogs must not be very popular here and this kraut had been around a very, very long time.

Just couldn't eat it.  Yuck.

My score: 4 out of 10.  Cute only gets you so far.  Despite the outstanding ambiance, it was only an  OK bun, OK dog.  The disgusting kraut was a deal killer.

Skippers

Our next scheduled stop was at Beltane Farm, a goat cheese dairy in Lebanon CT at 1pm.  With an hour and a half left to make the 45 minute drive, we selected a scenic route  that would take us a ways along the coast and then up along the west side of the Connecticut River.

Ahh, the best laid plans...  We left Bobby's, drove a block down to the water, made a left turn and there, staring us in the faces, was our first official clam shack of the trip.  I immediately pulled in without asking the others, feeling the need to put something in my mouth to make up for that kraut.

We'd arrived at Skippers.

Skippers was right across the street from the water with plentiful seating, about half outside and half in.  Brightly lit and sparkling clean it sported an extensive and colorful menu board featuring primarily fried seafood.

Without hesitation I ordered the Fresh Whole Clam Roll.  Cynthia and Jim got drinks only.

I took my number and we went outside to enjoy the view. Traffic along the coastal road was picking up steadily, sometimes moving at only a crawl.  Not unexpected for a mid-summer  Saturday morning. Soon my number was called and I picked up my plate at the window.

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!  The over-abundance of calms spilling out of the bun were accompanied by a little cup of tartar sauce and some potato chips.  Grabbing a clam off the plate, a quick pass at the sauce and into my mouth. Mmmmm ouch, Ouch, OUCH!  OK, I maybe should have waited for it to cool a little but oh my, what a delicious clam.  By the time I had gotten to the third or fourth one they stopped burning my mouth but it was hard to slow down.  Sweet, salty with a perfect breading crunch. All-around excellent. Even Cynthia, who has never been a big whole-clam eater, tried a few and thought them very good.

I always think of the bun on a clam roll as being superfluous. Ordering a roll is an easy way of getting a small order of clams, but I had to laugh outloud in this case.  The bun was the flat-sided, New England-style kind and it had been perfectly griddled in a little butter.  At last, I'd found the exact hot dog bun I'd been looking for and there wasn't a hotdog in sight!

The tartar sauce was tasty and it was a relief not to have been given those awful little portion packets that so many places have taken to using.  Even the chips were good - thick waffle cut and crispy.

My Score: 9 out of 10.  Skippers put on no airs of pretension and did exactly what a clam shack was supposed to do.  Provide great food at reasonable prices with a casual shore line atmosphere.

(To be continued)

The Dog Days of Connecticut - Hot-Doggin' it, day 2 (part 5)

July 29 2011, Day two of  "The Great 2011 CT Hot Dog Tour"  continued... (back to part 4)

Louis Lunch

It's about 4PM and, ready for a change of pace, we're at Louis Lunch in New Haven.

Housed in an historic and, quite honestly, one of the cutest little buildings you can imagine, Louis serves burgers and only burgers. As a matter of fact, they bill themselves as "The Birthplace of the Hamburger Sandwich".  Established in 1895, the story goes that in 1900 the proprietor Louis Lassen, whipped one up out of steak trimmings for a customer on the run and history was made.  Today the shop is run by Louis's great grand son Jeff Lassen and Jeff has kept the menu simple.

The menu offers: Burgers or cheese burgers with or without onions and tomatoes.  Period.  (And don't even think of asking for ketchup or mustard).

OK, they do also offer potato salad and little bags of chips as sides and coffee or pie for dessert.

In addition to their great location, adorable building, irresistible story and their rich history, their unique method of cooking the hamburgers is another of their draws.  The burgers are arranged on squeeze racks and cooked vertically in special antique gas cookers.

Oh.  And the burgers aren't served on buns, but between two slices of white bread (NO you can not have whole wheat!), run through a conveyor toaster.

Well,for having arrived far off any peak meal period, the place was still jumping.  We were fortunate to find three stools at the counter where we could observe the ordering/cooking process.  "Ritual" might be a better word.

Our orders were taken by the counter man who takes payment and sets up the paper plates necessary . Amid much banter and back-talk he relays the order to the burger man who works the burger cookers, and assembles the sandwiches. The burgers are portioned ahead into large balls and stacked in a pan.  The burger man flattens the balls, fixes them to the racks, and cooks them to order, so you can expect it to take a little while to fill an order (burgers are always cooked medium rare unless you tell them you want it cooked more in which case it takes a little longer). He also slices the tomatoes and onions to order for each sandwich and puts it all together on the toast that the two of them have somehow managed to keep flowing out of the conveyor.

Once assembled the sandwiches are popped onto the waiting paper plates with a paper napkin tossed on top and presented to the customer.

I got a burger with "the works"...

...and accompanied it with another New England favorite, birch beer (a carbonated soft drink made from the bark of the black birch tree, and tastes a bit like root beer).  This one was made by Foxon Park  just down the road in East Haven CT.  Foxon Park distinguishes itself by using only sugar in making its beverages instead of the more commonly found high fructose corn syrup.

So.  How was the burger? I was in the minority of the three of us when I later described it as "just OK".  Once the weekend was over and we did a review, Jim went as far as to rate it as the best food product of the whole trip.  I didn't get that at all.

 I found the meat to be nicely cooked and juicy but under-seasoned (if seasoned at all).  The white bread toast was less than forgettable, I thought it detracted from the whole, and the house policy of not providing/allowing condiments an unnecessary conceit.

I know that the "My way or the Highway", "no substitutions", "take-it-or-leave-it" attitude has become more prevalent in recent years among chefs and at many top-end restaurants, and while I don't think anybody really believed that the "The customer is always right", the opposite attitude that "we know better than you" bothers me.  It more often than not comes across as "We don't really care what you want and don't need your business that badly".  Jeez guys, it's just a hamburger, hows about a little ketchup?

On the up side of things, the ambiance of the  place was off the charts. I felt like a regular customer settling into my favorite seat, surrounded by friends. The atmosphere was cozy, warm and inviting with the business's storied history practically oozing out of the walls.  The lightening fast, back-and-worth patter of the countermen, with their distinctive CT/New England accents was the perfect sound track for the meal.

My rating: 8 out of 10.  Everybody should make the pilgrimage to Louis at least once.  If you like it, great! Go back often.  If not... well, they really don't need your business anyway!

Wentworth's

5 PM.  Heading back toward our motel we go via Hamden so we can stop in at Wentworth's  for some Homemade Ice Cream

Wentworth's ice cream parlor is located in beautifully cared for classical-styled  New England clapboard house right on the main road.

They offered dozens of flavors with a bevy of young women flying around scooping and saucing and whip-creaming and putting cherries on top.  Everyone was friendly and efficient.

I ordered a small dish of Butter Pecan and C got Butter Brickle (pieces of crushed butterscotch candy in buttercream ice cream).

Oh my, this was some heavenly ice cream! By far the best I'd had in a long time.  Unfortunately we were both a bit too full from all the day's activities to finish our dishes.  The good news?  Our motel rooms included small refrigerator/freezers!  To Go Please!

My rating: 9 out of 10.  The only negative thing I can think of is that the over-all cleanliness wasn't that great.  Granted, it was the end of a hot summer's day and they had, no doubt, been busy from the time they opened, but...(can't give it a 10).  Never the less, I would not hesitate to go back in a second, should the opportunity present itself.  As a matter of fact, I regret that we did not have the chance to go back again on this trip.

The Hot Dog Case

Almost back to the motel, we popped into a grocery store, just down the street for a few beers for tonight and beverages for tomorrow.

Back at the beginning of the entries for this trip I made a reference to CT as being a "hot dog mecca".  I thought it was just that there were a lot of good and well-known hot dog joints and restaurants in the state but apparently the wiener vein runs much deeper than that. Take a look at this large, free-standing refrigerator case we came across (conveniently at the end of the beer aisle) completely filled with hot dogs!...

This is not a huge grocery store but there must be thousands of hot dogs here and certainly dozens of makers, styles and varieties. We're definitely in the right place.  'Nuff said.

Planning Department

I would hate to have you think that we just happened to stumble across all of these diverse and interesting places just by luck.  The truth is that we (mostly Cynthia) have been planning this trip for weeks.  By the time we had all gathered here, she had prepared a detailed itinerary including maps, coordinates, reference pages marked in various travel and foodie books and guides.  Hours were spent doing online research.  Cynthia even managed to personally contact a well-respected CT food blogger to get her most recent and updated advice for our travels across the state.

But plans change and evolve.  We found out today from Mark at Cato Dairy that there was a sheep dairy in the area that we should really try to go see.  We'd also already hit a couple of the places on tomorrow's schedule so we took a little time this evening to re-plan the best route for tomorrow.

Where would we be without in-room WiFi and lap-top computers?!

(Continued Here)

The Dog Days of Connecticut - Hot-Doggin' it, day 2 (part 4)

July 29 2011, Day two of  "The Great 2011 CT Hot Dog Tour"  continued...
(back to part 3)

Capitol Lunch

Getting hungry by now (just kidding), we headed to New Britain to visit Capitol Lunch.

 Capitol is not a lunch cart or true hotdog stand as were all the other hot dog places we'd visited so far, but a real bricks-and-mortar restaurant with indoor seating.  Not a fine dining room by any stretch of the imagination it is actually several steps down from most fast food chains' dining areas - but we're not here for the decor.

 We're here for the dogs.  This is one of those places of legendary reputation.  Founded in 1929 it has a loyal local following.  As we approached the ordering window, we didn't have to ask what type of dog they were famous for. It was right on their main sign outside and prominently displayed all over their menu board.  "Hot Dogs with the Famous Sauce".

 According to the folks at Capitol, their  Famous Sauce (always reverently capitalized) is "Made the same way Grandpa Art made it years ago, not hot, no beans; just meat and spices".  They even sell it on the side, by the pint.

Anyway, this made ordering easy.  We got a couple "with the works" and the obligatory extra kraut dog/mustard/relish as a control, and a side of onion rings just to see how they were.  Within seconds of ordering, up they popped at the pick-up station.

 [Sigh] doesn't anybody in New England use New England-style buns anymore? Well, not here, that's for sure, and they didn't toast them here either so I was prepared for another messy disaster.  To my delight, the dogs each held up well as I lifted them from the styrofoam plate (these are the equivalent to fine china at a hot dog joint).  Somebody had been paying attention in the kitchen and had actually drained the sauerkraut!  Be still my beating heart! 

And the  sauce (I mean the Famous Sauce), is apparently a bit thicker than what we'd been seeing so far as it had not soaked all into the bun. It was, however an amazing color.  Most of the sauces we'd ween had been shades of red this one was brown,  Very brown.  Dark brown to the point of almost being black.

Time for the first bite, I went for the house dog at the same time as Cynthia bit into hers. In lieu of a lengthy description, here's a picture.

 It was awful.  Like eating mud.  Weird, clove and cinnamon-scented mud.  The upside? Well, it didn't need salt!  To our credit we stuck with it and ate a few more bites before giving in to the fact that we all hated this Famous Sauce. We cleaned up our table and left in a hurry.

My score: 2 out of 10.  In all honesty, I don't even remember what the dog tasted like.  I couldn't taste it under the sauce at all and I can't remember how it was under the kraut. My best clue is that there was still some on my plate when I was done.  The onion rings were fried from frozen, the ambiance was non-existent, and their house specialty was disgusting. In talking to a friend about it, Cynthia quoted her as saying "You know, Capitol Lunch was kind of a big deal when I was in college there but that sauce is kind of scary to me now".  Amen.

By the way, for those of you who who are Capitol fans and think I'm being too harsh, I'm going to throw you a bone.  It's a big bone.  I have discovered the secret to the Famous Sauce.  It's right there on their web site and I'm going to share it with you now...

" The beginnings of Capitol Lunch didn't start with hot dogs oddly enough. The location was originally a little shoe shine shop that began to sell hot dogs to attract customers. "

 Got too much shoe polish and too few customers?  Invent a Famous Sauce for hot dogs!

The Glenwood

OK, So the whole hot dog tour isn't going all that well.  For whatever reason, we seem to be hitting all the low spots instead of the highs but nobody is talking about quitting. Ever the eternal optimists, we soldier on to our next destination:  The Glenwood Drive-in in Hamden.

The signs outside give us a boost of optimism by promising "char-broiled" dogs, something we have not yet encountered in our samples so far.   Similar to Capitol Lunch, The Glenwood is not a true hot dog stand with a walk-up window but, instead, has a dining area indoors.  This is probably a good thing because it has started to rain.

The order counter is tidy and efficiently run and we place our orders almost without thinking about it. Me: 2 dogs - one kraut, one with chili.  C&J: split a dog, kraut on 1/2 of it (yes, I'm rolling my eyes, just a bit). 

 Another encouraging sign is the condiment bar adjacent to the pick-up window.  It featured half a dozen, or more, assorted mustards, relishes, ketchup etc.

 Our orders are soon ready, we make a stop for condiments and head off to a table to eat.

 The dogs are "foot-long" dogs, grilled over an open flame until a little brown and almost bursting.  They fit the buns well and SURPRISE!!! the buns are actually New England-style AND toasted! The Glenwood is really racking up the points today!  Now for the taste testing...

 Now, is that a face that could sell hot dogs, or what?  Oh yes, happy campers all around here.  The dogs are delicious.  Plump, juicy with a very nice grill flavor.  These are, by far the best dogs we've had on this trip.  Even my chili dog was good - the meat sauce mildly spicy with a nice dose of cumin and even a few kidney beans thrown in for interest. My only regret is that I had wasted prime stomach space on some of those previous dogs and just didn't have room to finish these. They were that good.

My Rating: 9 out of 10.  Glenwood lost a point from my ideal only because of its "ambiance".  If it had been an open -air stand (never mind the rain) I think it would have been a 10.

Kelly's Kone Konection

Conveniently located adjacent to The Glenwood (actually in the same building), Kelly's Kone Konnection is, pretty obviously, an ice cream parlor. While not on the official itinerary for the trip, we couldn't resist.

 Kelly's (and yes there really is a "Kelly" at Kelly's) had about 20 flavors but I already knew what I was in the mood for.

 A small hot fudge sundae (a sign said they make their own fudge  sauce right here) with mint-chocolate chip ice cream. C&J split a small dish of caramel swirl.

 They were both good, but nothing earth-shakingly outstanding.

My score: 7 out of 10

(Continued Here)

The Dog Days of Connecticut - Hot-Doggin' it, day 2 (part 3)

(back to part 2)

July 29 2011, Day two of  "The Great 2011 CT Hot Dog Tour"  continued...

Harry's Place

It's about 11:45am,  nearly 30 hours since I  left the Ranch. and we have finally made it to our first hot dog stand of the trip.  We've arrived at Harry's Place in Colchester.

We wandered over to the menu board to initiate our attack. 

In discussing the plan previously, we had decided that we want to give each place it's fair shot at impressing us.  Pre-trip research has revealed that most of the dog stands have a specialty of the house, and that most of these specialties feature a dog that includes some kind of "meat sauce" on them.  I've never been that big of a fan of meat sauces, chilis etc on my hot dogs but maybe that's because I've never had a great one. 

My personal standard for the perfect hot dog goes something like this: natural skin dog (any length), cooked so the dog has a nice "snap".  This pretty much eliminates steamed and boiled dogs but leaves the field wide open for grilling, griddling, frying etc.  The dog should be presented in an appropriate-to-dog-sized New England-style bun (2 flat sides with a slit down the middle for the dog), that has been nicely toasted in a little butter.  Condiments of choice: spicy brown mustard, pickle relish, and sauerkraut.

I've decided that the only reasonable thing to do is to order two dogs at each place.  One "house special" , and one "David-style".

Looking at Harry's menu I find myself curiously uninspired.  It's been nearly 5 hours since that amazing breakfast at O'Rourke's but only about 20 minutes since we finished a generous tasting about 8 different cheeses at Cato Farm.  Nothing to do but "Man-Up" (a phrase that would come up repeatedly over the next 2 days), and order.

At the window we could see a platoon of hotdogs lined up for inspection on the grill inside, lookin' good, but not quite good enough to make me truly hungry yet.

 Fortunately for me, when asked what was the house special dog, the counterman said "Well, pretty much anything you like.  They're all good."  Off the hook on my first outing, I ordered just one David-style dog.

I picked up the dog at the next window when my order was announced, as did Cynthia and Jim who would be splitting a single plain dog (light-weights!), and we all proceeded over to one of conveniently-located picnic tables out front near the road.  There were also several  tables on the side of the building in a very pretty grassy area but we decided to stay and watch the action at the counter.

Well, it wasn't a NE-style bun and it wasn't toasted.  Too bad because the dog inside was pretty good.  Well-browned on the griddle, it had a nice moderate "snap" to the casing. Harry's also got some bonus points because they put on a brown mustard automatically, with out my having to asked specifically for it. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to counter the problem with the kraut.  While flavorful, it had not been drained sufficiently and by the time we'd gotten to our seats, the juice had already sogged it's way through the bun and was pooling in the paper tray.

A hot dog is supposed to be hand-held food but every attempt to pick this dog up was fruitless.  The kraut juice soaked bun wouldn't hold its shape, the dog slipped out onto the paper tray as the rest disintegrated into a less-than-appetizing pile with a resounding "plop" . This is one of the problems with typical steamed buns.  Sure, they're soft and fluffy, but they are so saturated with moisture coming out the that there isn't any absorbency left to them.

Cynthia and Jim faired better.  Without any added wetness, their minimalist dog was much easier to eat.

My score: 6 out of 10. Great ambiance (for a hot dog stand, of course), and a pretty good dog but regardless how good the underlying meat is, if it's impossible to eat the whole as intended, how can it possibly score well overall?

I'm sure I will be subjected to the wrath of Harry's fans for "dissing" their joint.  Hot dog fans are fiercely loyal and notoriously outspoken about their favorite stands. 

My druthers would be to go back to all of these places a couple more times to get a better feel for if the dogs I'm eating there are typical or aberrations of some sort. On the other hand, it's HOT DOGS, not rocket science and if they can't get it right each and every time then do they really deserve repeat business?  There are literally dozens of these stands just a short drive from every other one so, I guess, my answer would be "No", they don't.

Scotties

A short drive up the road from Harry's was our next stop: Scotties Frozen Custard, Colchester.

Made on-premise, Scotties offers three flavors of custard (Vanilla, Chocolate, and flavor of the day) and  an impressive list of Sundaes, Special Sundaes, and toppings as well as shakes malts and floats.

C&J went for a "small" vanilla cone and I had a chocolate.  Small was certainly relative in this case because the cones were huge.

After a few bites (we hadn't even left the porch yet), the owner ("Scottie", I assume) stuck his head out and asked Cynthia, "So, that's good, You like that? I just made it fresh this morning!"

It was good and so was my chocolate.  We wandered out back to he picnic tables where Cynthia got friendly with another Scottie.

My score: 9 out of 10.  I don't really have a solid reason to not to give it a 10.  There was not a single thing wrong with Scotties  but I figure while very good in all respects, a 10 deserves something more, something exceptional. Jim gave it a slightly lesser score. He had apparently had the gold standard of frozen custards many (MANY) years ago and has been trying to recapture that magic moment ever since.  Cynthia suggested that perhaps his memory was a bit idealized but he stuck to his guns, giving it an 8.

Top Dog

So, back on the road again (I feel a Willie Nelson song coming on).  Next stop: Top Dog in Portland.  Top Dog is one of those places that EVERYBODY says you HAVE to go to, but nobody says "because they have the best hot dogs".

This is Top Dog...

Yup, that's a custom-converted food trailer in the shape of big ol' wienie and bun, complete with cheese, mustard (yellow), relish and onions. It gets towed around by and old Checker cab that includes several sportily-clad mannequins waving out the windows. 

I have a "thing" for Checker cabs so this is quite cool to me.  My very first car, back in the 1970's was an old retired NYC Checker cab.  The thing had 80 gazillion miles on it and had even been th star of a kid's movie (Santiago's America, if you're interested), but it only cost $200 and was the perfect vehicle for a teenage boy with a brand new driver's licence. The thing was a tank and you could run into almost anything with out hurting it our yourself, and I did exactly that for about 4 years through high school and on into college until it finally gave up on me. I was heart broken.

Back to Top Dog.  I approached the window the lone woman who was squeezed into the small space with all the cooking equipment, food and piles of paper plates etc greeted me.  "What can I get you?"

"What's your best dog?"

"Hmmmm, depend on what you like".  I was not going to give up quite so easily this time.

"What's your personal favorite dog?"

"I like them all".  She was not going to make this easy on me, was she?.

"OK, If I were the food critic from the New York Times, what dog would you want me to eat"?

Realizing that I wasn't going to order without some kind of answer she said "The Cajun Dog, I guess.  That's what were best known for".  Finally.  Was that so hard?

"I'll take one of those and one kraut dog with mustard and relish".

"You want that Cajun Dog real spicy?"

"Absolutely!"

The Cajun dog was described as a hot dog, a slice of Pepper Jack cheese, some special Cajun sweet-hot relish, topped with a grind meat chili sauce. 

Within a couple of moments, my order was ready.

The dogs again sat in boring steamed standard (non New England-style) buns so, it was no big surprise when both dogs experienced catastrophic failure upon trying to be lifted from the paper tray on which they were served.

What was surprising was the dog itself.  I managed to get one end of the kraut dog sandwich to my mouth and even get a small get a bite before it totally collapsed.  That dog was GOOD!  It appeared to be steamed but, in addition to being plump and juicy, the skin was nice and taught with a surprising snap.  I might have to re-think my steamed dog prejudices.  The meat itself was well seasoned, standing up well to all the accoutrements pied on it.

Unfortunately, that was the only whole bite I got. The kraut had, again not been drained turning the rest of the bun into mush in a few seconds. The "Cajun dog" was even worse.  Not only did all the moisture from the meat sauce disintegrate the bun but it did something weird to the gluten in the bread, making it (for lack of a better descriptor) "snotty".  It was definitely not the cheese as it had never melted (see pic above) and I'd pulled it out of the dog pile by this point anyway. I could actually grab a piece of the bun and pull it out several inches. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Stranger yet was that the Cajun Dog, as a whole, was under seasoned.  Yes it had a little spice to it but it was lacking in... salt?!  I thought that maybe my taste buds had gone on strike at the sight of that bun muck so I asked both C & J to try it.  Both got puzzled looks on their faces and Cynthia said,  "You know there is something very wrong when a hotdog needs more salt".

One other note: the mustard was some tasteless yellow kind, no brown mustard offered.

My score: 4 out of 10.  Despite being completely disgusted by what was left on my plate when I was done, the wieners themselves were very good and the ambiance was excellent, saving Top Dog from being what would have otherwise been an even lower score.

(Continued Here)