Go For The Food: Hot Doug’s in Chicago
Doug Sohn has made an art of the traditional Chicago-style hot dog, replete with mustard, onions, pickle relish, dill spear, tomatoes, celery salt and sport peppers.
But if you stop your order there, you’ll miss much of the joy of eating at his Hot Doug’s restaurant on the city’s northwest side. Because what really draws the crowds – and foodies from afar – is Sohn’s menu filled with rare sausages curated to offer spicy and sweet, ethnic and American, and all served for about $10 or less.
It’s what earns Hot Doug’s the title “The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium.” Things such as smoked and spicy alligator sausage with crayfish etoufee mayonnaise and smoked blue cheese drizzled with honey; or apple, pear and port wine elk sausage with cherry-apricot mustard, double cream brie and pate de campagne; or even red mole turkey sausage with chipotle Dijonnaise, queso asadero and fried tortillas.
Sohn has a rotating stockpile of about 100 recipes that he’s created and gets his meats from about a dozen sausage makers. He says he knew he hit it big when the sausage companies started coming to him.
So there are two menus. One covers the basic hot dogs, Polish sausages, bratwursts and corn dogs. That menu doesn’t change, though the names of the dishes do. For example, a hot link is now known as an Anna Kendrick (previously Britney Spears, Jennifer Garner or Keira Knightley).
The other menu lists the gourmet dogs and it changes week to week, based on inventory, and has about a dozen dogs on it.
“There are new ones coming on and off the board all the time,” Sohn said recently.
It’s no surprise that the line into Hot Doug’s can stretch along the side of Sohn’s brick Chicago two-flat before his 10:30 a.m. opening, and sometimes down the block.
Caryn Rousseau, The Associated Press
In this Oct. 9, 2013, photo, customers enjoy their meal at Doug Sohn’s Hot Doug’s restaurant on the northwest side of Chicago, at what has been called “The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium.” Sohn’s hot dog eatery offers such creations as, _ smoked and spicy alligator sausage with crayfish etoufee mayonnaise and smoked blue cheese drizzled with honey, _ apple, pear and port wine elk sausage with cherry-apricot mustard, double creme brie cheese and pate de campagne, and _ red mole turkey sausage with chipotle dijonnaise, queso asadero and fried tortillas. Sohn has a rotating stockpile of about 100 recipes that he’s created and gets his meats from a dozen different sausage makers. He says he knew he hit it big when the sausage companies started coming to him. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
In this Oct. 9, 2013, photo, Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug’s restaurant on the northwest side of Chicago, poses before business opens. Sohn’s hot dog eatery offers a rotating stockpile of about 100 recipes that he?s created and gets his meats from a dozen different sausage makers. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
In this Oct. 9, 2013, photo, customers enjoy their meals at Doug Sohn’s Hot Doug’s restaurant on the northwest side of Chicago. Sohn’s hot dog eatery offers such creations as, smoked spicy alligator sausage with crayfish etoufee mayonnaise and smoked blue cheese drizzled with honey, apple, pear and port wine elk sausage with cherry-apricot mustard, double creme brie cheese and pate de campagne, and red mole turkey sausage with chipotle dijonnaise, queso asadero and fried tortillas. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
In this Oct. 9, 2013, photo, a menu adorns the wall at Doug Sohn’s Hot Doug’s restaurant on the northwest side of Chicago. The eatery has been called “The Sausage Superstore and Encased Meat Emporium.” (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)
In this Oct. 9, 2013, photo, Doug Sohn, owner of Hot Doug’s restaurant on the northwest side of Chicago, looks at a display case of memorabilia before business opens. Sohn’s hot dog eatery has a rotating stockpile of about 100 recipes that he?s created and gets his meats from a dozen different sausage makers. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)