A Local’s Guide to the Best Hot Dogs in Chicago [Video]

At the little hot dog stand around the corner from my house, my order always starts with the same song and dance:

“One hot dog with everything on it, no fries.”

“One ‘dragged through the garden.’ Fries come with it. Free.”

“Don’t bother, I don’t want them.”

“Same price.”

“Charge me, that’s fine.”

“Okay, one dollar off.”

If, like me, you reside in Chicago, chances are you also have the good fortune to live around the corner from a little hot dog stand. You’ve learned to count on it for a quick lunch, a big snack, a late-night liquor sop and — during warm weather when picnic benches seem to sprout from the earth — a kind of perfect al fresco dinner. In this situation, you do want the fries and perhaps a “double dog” with two side-by-side links sharing a bun under all those garden draggings. 

In Chicago that means diced onions, pickle relish dyed a shade of science-fiction green, mustard, tomato slices, snappy little sport …