Best in Show

Hank's Haute Dogs elevates the lowly convenience food to new heights

MY KIND OF TOWN: Hank's Chicago-style hot dog, packed with pickle, pepper and veggies, is a top dog.

jimmy forrest

It’s taken me a little while to visit Hank’s Haute Dogs, because the hot dog is one of those food items that I don’t normally seek out. It finds me – usually at sporting events, on street corners, or in front of a big-box store, if at all. It’s ordinary. It’s convenient.

That is, until now. According to its elegant Web site, Hank’s, with its eclectic collection of regional, specialty and exotic sausages, promises to change the image of the hot dog, giving Islanders a taste of “progressive cuisine.”

I’m not exactly sure what progressive cuisine means, but I think it involves using extraordinary ingredients to transform ordinary dishes. For example, last winter, I waited in a drizzling rain for nearly an hour for a $3.25 cupcake that Oprah likes. The place, located in fashionable Beverly Hills, looked more like a boutique than a bakery, and I felt very fancy standing along Little Santa Monica Boulevard, even though I was cold and wet. After shelling out $36 for a dozen cupcakes and $25 for a hip logo T-shirt for my wife, I also felt progressive but a little excessive, too.

While it isn’t quite as fancy as that cupcake store, everything about Hank’s is first rate. The signage, menu board and food packaging are all carefully and impeccably designed. Hank’s also has a T-shirt line, which features an angelic flying sausage that totally kicks cupcake butt.

The menu is easy to read and navigate, with the sausages falling into two separate categories: classic and haute dogs. Classics feature the Hank Frank, a genuine Chicago Vienna dog, and the Polish. Haute dogs include Portuguese, chicken, chorizo, andouille, seafood, duck and foie gras and a wide and growing selection of specialty sausages that are offered on a weekly basis.

On my first visit, I went classic and ordered a Polish ($5.25) dressed up Chicago style, which means it had just about everything: yellow mustard, very green relish, raw onions, tomato, dill pickles, celery salt and hot peppers. It was delicious. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Chicago-style dog, and I’ve forgotten how interesting and fun they are. You can spend $30 on an entré at a fine-dining restaurant and not find as many contrasting and complimentary textures and flavors as you do with a Chicago. There’s the snap and crunchiness of the grilled casing, the tenderness of the beef inside, tangy yellow mustard, sweet relish, sharp onion, hot peppers and fruity tomato. With all the shapes and colors – especially the Day-Glo green relish – the thing looked pretty good, too.

Alas, the whole experience was over in minutes. It’s not a big dog.

I returned a few days later and sampled the Rabbit and Veal Dog ($6.95) and shared orders of French Fries ($5) and Onion Rings ($3.75). Again, my dog had a nice snap to it, but I found the meat a little dry and the flavors meek, almost unidentifiable. The sausage was topped with sauerkraut and a sprinkling of relish. Both were bold and overwhelmed the dog.

However, the french fries and the onion rings, which featured Maui onions, were excellent. They were nicely fried, staying crisp and holding their shape for a reasonable amount of time. They were also generously salted, so ketchup and other fancy dips weren’t necessary.

Overall, Hank’s reminds me a lot of that cupcake store: premium ingredients (and prices) for food that I usually eat in a matter of seconds. It’s fancy food that makes you feel fancy while you’re eating it, but there’s not much else to lure me back, except for maybe those T-shirts.

HANK’S HAUTE DOGS

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