Spending National Hot Dog Day at Superdawg
In honor of Wednesday’s National Hot Dog Day, this month’s restaurant review will be a three-parter featuring local hot dog restaurants.
I celebrated the “holiday” by dining at the legendary Superdawg. They have two locations, one on the Northwest side of Chicago and a north suburban one in Wheeling. I've always liked the one in the city better, but because I live fifteen minutes from the burbs location, off to Wheeling I went.
We’ll get to the food shortly, but first a little history:
Maury Berman was a World War II veteran. He was recently married to his high school sweetheart, Florie. Maury was looking for a way to help him pay for college at Northwestern University. They decided starting a hot dog stand would be a good summer job. This began in 1948 and two years later it was so successful that Superdawg became a full-time, year-long business. In 2010, they opened location number two in Wheeling.
Now on to the food:
I'm pretty easy when it comes to hot dogs at restaurants. I eat them plain! All the stuff that makes a Chicago hot dog a Chicago hot dog, I don’t like. All I need is the dog to be hot, a poppy seed bun and good French fries. Pretty simple, right? You’d think so, but it doesn't always happen. And some of the times I’ve been disappointed has been at Superdawg. I usually eat there a couple of times each year and occasionally I’ve had a stale bun with not-so-hot french fries.
But, that was not the case on Wednesday night.
One of the things I’ve always loved about Superdawg is their presentation. The hot dog comes in a small box, with small crinkled fries surrounding the dog. The heat of the hot dog helps keep the fries heated. Wednesday night it worked perfectly.
The hot dog was hot and juicy, and the fries were fresh out of the fryer. No complaints about the meal except for the cost—$9.50 seems a bit high. It was so good that I was thinking about heading back there for lunch.
It’s hard to believe, but Superdawg is now seventy-six years old—and still very good. It will probably outlive us all.
