[HOT LIST] Hot dogs

Atomic Dawg. Photo from their Facebook page. 

The hot dog has come a long way in metro Detroit since our first Hot Dog Hot List in the summer of '11. The gourmet hot dog trend got off to a halty start here with some places shutting down just as their buzz started building. But now the haute hot dog, yet another cheap food blue collar food made fashionable and now costs $9, has reached bonafide trend status. And that trend also happens to be wrapped in bacon (more often than not). While there are none on this list quite so patriotic as the most America-est hot dog in America, we can still hold out hope that Chef Andy Hollyday will recreate this Le Haute Duck when he opens his own place later this year.

In honor of National Hot Dog Month, here are the hottest dogs in metro Detroit.

The hot dog that should come with a waiver: Imperial's new Egg On Your Face late-night dog.

#1 Imperial Ferndale
In case you didn't know, Imperial is one of the best bars/restaurants/hang-outs in metro Detroit. So now you know. Now that we've got that cleared up, let's on to the hot dogs: they started with the simple Sonoran, a bacon-wrapped hot dog with stewed beans, tomato, onion, poblano lime cream, and salsa verde. That became so popular that they added MORE hot dogs to the menu. And the place became so popular that they also decided to add more menu; specifically, a brand-new weekend late-night menu, which includes items like the Egg On Your Face bacon-wrapped hot dog with queso fresco, jalapeno onion relish, chipotle aioli, carne asada, chorizo, and (AND) a fried egg. Yeah, that's one hot dog.

The 3 A.M. Dog at Vinsetta Garage.

#2 Vinsetta Garage Berkley
So I recently wrote this in Metromode: "The historic old garage reborn as a restaurant opened less than a year ago, and from day one has been filling its waiting list. The iconic building's history and the excellent adaptive reuse notwithstanding, people come here for one primary reason: the food. Classic American comfort food meets classic American car culture here, but in addition to the Union Joints' signature macaroni and cheese and the out-of-this-world disco fries (get the disco fries), the burgers are the real stars at Vinsetta." Okay so yeah, the burgers are the stars here but the tube steaks are no slouches. There's the Classic Detroit Coney with house-made chili, the Yeti Dog which is wrapped in bacon and deep-fried, and the 3 A.M. Dog, the hot dog version of the burger by the same name with house-made bacon jam, sriracha mayo, a sunny fried egg and crispy fried onions.

#3 Atomic Dawg Berkley
At this point I'm just repeating myself, so here again is what I wrote about Atomic Dawg for that same story in Metromode: "Though technically the Atomic Dawg is not owned by Corridor Sausage, it is 'owned' by Corridor Sausage in the pwned kind of way. As American chefs continue combing through the archives of the greatest hits of American junk food for the Next Big Thing in garbage gone gourmand, it seems that sights are set on the good old all-American hot dog. Atomic Dawg uses Corridor Sausage for their sausage selection (which includes a sausage of the week) serving what is, essentially, a really dressed up version of a meat tube." They also have a big selection of big "dawgs" that come with such toppings as pulled pork and grilled pineapple, plus they've got veggie dogs for those who like everything on the hot dog except for the hot dog itself.

#4 The Grindhouse Detroit
The Grindhouse is the recently-launched food truck owned by the folks at Corridor Sausage. Since Corridor will be mentioned on this list a total of three times, I would be remiss to not give it its own place on the list. Now, we could split hairs here - what defines a "hot dog" versus a sausage, and if we're including sausage here what about [all of these other sausage places]? Um. 'Cuz Corridor rulz. And Grindhouse has corn dogs! So. There. (Even Charley thinks so, and he's the mustard dude.)

#5 Ford Field Detroit
Not only is Ford Field stepping up their game this year with a new Corridor Sausage cart, but they've been serving Dearborn Sausage Co. hot dogs with Charley's Ballpark Mustard (the mustard dude!) for awhile now. And that, really, is all you need in a hot dog.

Recent hot dog specials at Falling Down Beer Co.

Honorable mention: Falling Down Beer Company (Warren)
These Dearborn Sausage Co. dogs were a recent special, but deserve their proper dues regardless (they will also most likely be making their way to a new late-night menu, so stay tuned). Word is out in the beerie community: Falling Down has some of the best bar food in town. Pictured: Southern Dog - homemade pimento cheese and crumbled bacon; Chipotle BBQ Dog - BBQ pulled pork and creamy chipotle slaw; Guacamole Dog - house made guacamole and cumin-salted corn tortilla strips; Horse Relish Dog - McClure's spicy pickle, red onion, horseradish and sauerkraut relish with stoneground Dijonaise.

Bubbling under Roast (Detroit), Biercamp (Ann Arbor), The Wurst Bar (Ypsilanti), Bucharest Grill (downtown), Rosie O'Grady's (multiple locations), Detroit Under Dog (Ferndale), Mercury Burger Bar (Corktown), Five Guys Burgers and Fries (various locations), Hippo's Hot Dogs (Troy, Clinton Twp.), Old Shillelagh (Greektown), Epic (Novi), The Henry Ford (Dearborn), Comerica Park (Detroit), Tortitas el Rojito (SW Detroit)

[Real Detroit] Epic

Note: I may be just a little bit making fun of the name here.

You know, the word "epic" gets tossed around quite a bit. And, it's like, not everything is "epic," you know? Not every Instagram photo is epic, not every Saturday night is epic. But every Saturday night can be epic at Epic Tavern and Grill in Novi!

While you might disagree with the idea of bar being named "Epic" in the first place – Is it too presumptuous? Too arrogant? Can it ever really live up to its own name? – this recently-opened mega bar in Novi probably comes as close as anything ever could.

Read more.

[HOT LIST] Hot dogs

"The Frenchy" at Rosie O'Grady's, Ferndale. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

No, NOT Coneys ... we'll get to that eventually, but Detroit's Coney dog scene is well-documented enough already. What isn't well-documented is the quietly-growing gourmet hot dog trend. It makes sense: Detroit is so close to Chicago and Toronto (Chicago, where hot dogs are SERIOUS business, and Toronto - even Windsor - with the best damn street hot dog vendors in North America) that their cosmopolitan processed meat influence had to take hold eventually. Unfortunately some of the budding flowers of the metro Detroit gourmet hot dog scene have already been stomped back into the ground before they were able to fully bloom - the owner of the building that housed Gourmet Hot Dogs on John R (where a certain crepe stand once called home) decided the space would be better served as an ATM, while legal woes with investors have temporarily closed the brand-new Big City Dogs in Clawson - but the desire is still strong here for a hot dog with anything other than chili. We shall overcome, etc.

The truth is, gourmet dogs are in Detroit's blood. With local meatpacking companies like Koegel Meats (those Viennas in natural casing with the signature SNAP when you bite into them is the stuff Coneys are made of), Dearborn Sausage Co., and Kowalski Meats, it's kind of a shame these tasty dogs get buried under all that chili and onion. Don't worry, there are still hundreds of Coney Islands where hot dogs come no other way and WE'LL GET TO THAT ... but for now ... here's something a little different.Whether loaded up with toppings or so good you want to eat them plain, here's some of our favorite local weiners. (*snicker*)

#1 Hippo's Hot Dogs (Troy; Clinton Township)
There's really only two things Chicago does exceedingly and consistently well, and that's steakhouses and hot dogs. Chicago is a meatpacking town, and as much as it's now trying to all fancify itself to compete with the coasts, it can't, it doesn't, it won't. But. They have some good goddurn hot dogs. Maybe you've heard of Hot Doug's? Hippo's has been doing the Chicago-style dog since 1988. What makes a hot dog Chicago-style is "dragging it through the garden:" chopped white onions, tomato wedges, pickled sport peppers, a dill pickle spear, neon-green sweet pickle relish, yellow mustard and celery salt (or some variation of that). Here it's just called the "Hippo Dog," but it doesn't stop there. Hippo's has about a dozen other gourmet dogs including the "Polish Hippo" - same thing, only with charbroiled all-beef Polish sausage.

#2 Bucharest Grill (downtown Detroit)
There is a temptation to call Bucharest Grill the best-kept secret in Detroit, except it's not much of a secret and no one's keeping it. Their garlicky chicken shawarma is legendary in late-night and lunch circles (being essentially inside the favored local hangout Park Bar has certainly helped that reputation along), but they do serve other food. Their "Gourmet Dog" menu offers six options of knockwurst, bratwurst, and kielbasa dogs, which include the knockwurst-based Coney-style "Detroiter," as well as the "Hamtramck" with kielbasa, braised red cabbage, bacon and grainy mustard on a sesame seed bun. For funsies try the simple 1920 Red Hot, a spicy "old school" dog with grainy mustard.  Do this while drinking a full cold beer.

Best damn ballpark mustard, period. Served at Ford Field.

#3 Rosie O'Grady's (Ferndale; Sterling Heights; Chesterfield)
The 10'' USDA choice beef dogs in natural casings are custom-made just for Rosie O'Grady's, as are the artisan buns steamed to order. Choose from over a dozen "special" and "super special" dogs, including the Frenchy with sauteed mushrooms, Swiss cheese, bacon and Dijon mustard; and the New Yorker with sauerkraut, yellow mustard, and onion-spiked ketchup. For $3 add a side of their garlic parmesan French fries or their homemade onion rings, which are basically like pillowy deep-fried doughnuts with onions inside.

#4 Zack's Hot Dogs (Clinton Township; Warren [coming soon])
Zack's Hot Dogs differentiates their dogs by "snap" and Kosher-style skinless - an important distinction to make for the serious hot dog connoisseur. The "snaps" are natural casing dogs; Kosher are those beautiful all-beef, plump, juicy dogs - your classic ballpark frank. We could start getting into the specifics of Vienna vs. frankfurter vs. weiner which refers to whether they are beef, pork, or a mixture, but that's a whole lot of extra hot dog etymology. For our purposes, Zack's - a Baltimore-based chain that gets its dogs from Chicago's century-old Vienna Beef - covers the major bases, serving only all-beef regionally-inspired dogs.

#5 Tortitas El Rojito (Southwest Detroit)
Who loves gas station food in Southwest Detroit? We do. For as much lip service as Southwest's taco carts and taquerias get nowadays, the happy hot dog seems all but forgotten. Luckily the folks at Tortitas El Rojito haven't forgotten the joys of this Anglo-American treat, and they've added their own Mexican spin; they wrap it up in bacon, cover it in grilled onions, add tomato, ketchup, yellow mustard, and two kinds of homemade salsas.

Bubbling under The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village (Dearborn), Ford Field (Detroit), Lowe's and Home Depot (various locations throughout metro Detroit), Motor City Franks (Ferndale, mobile cart), Detroit Underdog (Ferndale, mobile cart)

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.