Sometimes you should trust your gut

Saturday, Mindy and I stopped by Menards in Crestwood, IL, to pick up a space heater and a furnace filter. On our way out, we both eyed the small hot dog stand next to the exit, “Shooters Chicago Style Beef & Dogs.”

Hot dogs! Italian Beef! Pizzas! Hoagies!¹ Nachos! Snickers! This place has it all

“I heard they’re good,” Mindy said, indicating the stand.

“Who says they’re good?”

“Well, lots of people have said they were good. <A friend of ours who probably spends a lot of time in Menards but I wouldn’t necessary call him a food guy> likes them.”

“… OK, do you want me to buy you a hot dog?” To be honest, I was curious myself but was happy to let it be her idea.

“Yes please.” So polite when she’s getting her way 😉

I ordered 2 hot dogs, hoping to be surprised. Mindy would have been willing to share one, but I knew she wouldn’t want the sport peppers, and I gotta have the peppers on mine. “Everything on those?” the lady inside asked.

“Yeah, one with everything, one with no peppers. Well, no ketchup on either of them either.” Never assume, even in Chicagoland.

She laughed. “Of course we don’t put ketchup on them.”

OK, that was one hurdle cleared. Mindy went out to start the car while I waited for the dogs and took the photo above. After a few minutes, the dogs were ready and I joined Mindy in the car

I got one, one little sport pepper

If I’d known this was all the chili I’d get, I could have split the dog with Mindy

The vegetables were otherwise in decent proportion, though of course the tomatoes were lousy, as you’d expect in January. The bun was a non-entity and began to fall apart a couple of bites in. The dog itself was dark, nearly purple, and overcooked to the point of mush, without any snap or texture at all.

Does this look like it had a casing? If it did, it had steamed or boiled long enough to disintegrate it

The hot dogs were only a couple of bucks each, so it’s not like this was an expensive lesson (unless they give us butt cancer). But if you find yourself contemplating whether to buy food in a situation, like a hardware store parking lot, that might not be conducive to good eating, you might think about listening to that instinct. Or just say fuck it and give it a try anyway. Who knows? You might find something great!

But probably not.

¹ I was going to say that we don’t call them Hoagies around here but a Google Maps search shows that isn’t entirely true.

Jim Behymer

I like sandwiches.

I like a lot of other things too but sandwiches are pretty great