Hot Doug’s Returns! (Sort of.)

Hot Doug’s is back! Well, sort of. You may remember that Doug Sohn, Real Life Sausage King of Chicago, spent a lot of time in the last few months of his restaurant’s existence vowing that, whatever he did next, it wouldn’t be running a restaurant. Then, he came back for a one-off day with Paulina Meat Market. Then, he came back for a one-off summer festival. Now, he’s back for…for good? It’s hard to say. But he’s not back in the restaurant game, per se, he’s back in the concessions game. At a press conference on July 2, Doug announced that Hot Doug’s-branded food would be coming to Platform 14 at Wrigley Field.

Predictably, a bunch of folks on the internet are pissed off or skeptical. But, that’s people on the internet for you. I hope every one of them will just shut up and enjoy this for what it is. It’s not quite Hot Doug’s, but is delicious. The existence of Doug-branded concession stand items shouldn’t tarnish any memories of The Place That Was. That place is still gone. Wrigley won’t have have the awesome music, the hot dog memorabilia, the weird camaraderie of patrons in line, or the smiling face of Doug taking orders. And Platform 14, special as it may be, is not going to reach the heights that the actual restaurant did either. What we’re getting is something between regular ol’ sausages and the glory that was Hot Doug’s.

How have I eaten the food already? Well, it is available now. But I’ve sampled it because of the two “victory lap” events that Doug staged this summer. The food served up at those events now looks a lot like a test run for the Wrigley concessions menu. In fact, two of the sausages debuting at Wrigley were served at the Dog Dayz event. They’re simplified versions of Doug’s original fare. There are fewer toppings per sausage, the toppings are a little more sparse (which will be easier to eat without a table nearby), and the cheese is in small, uniform shreds. I’m happy to report that these pared-down versions totally work, even if they’re not quite as good as the restaurant versions.

Take a look at what I mean:

Here’s the cheeseburger sausage with cola mustard and sharp cheddar. It was my favorite item at the festival. The version last served at Hot Doug’s featured an onion marmalade and more substantial pieces of smoked cheddar cheese. I missed having the onion flavor, but the sweetness of the barbecue sauce is well-balanced by the sharp cheddar. The overall tastiness of the original is intact. It’ll be the first thing I order at Wrigley when I make it there.

This is the atomic sausage with chipotle mustard and pepperjack cheese. The Atomic was never my favorite (though atomic/pepperjack made for an ASTOUNDINGLY good pizza). I thought the toppings on this one were a little boring, but it paired really well with the wheat beer I was drinking, and if you’re into spicy stuff, it’s worth your time.

I should also point out that the demo sausages at the press conference looked much better than these specimens. But, take a look at the difference between a little mass-produced tasting portion and this, from the restaurant:

That there is salsa verde wild boar sausage with chipotle dijonnaise, jalapeño bacon and smoked gouda cheese. You can see how a more complicated sausage would be very difficult to serve and/or eat at a ballpark. It’s a work of sausage art. It was heartbreakingly good.

Do these small differences really make for a different experience? Yeah, they do. Everything about the sausages from the restaurant were notably better, and the adventurous meats and flavor combinations (rattlesnake, bleu cheese and honey, anybody?) are gone. On the other hand, do these simplified offerings from Doug look better than everything else they’re serving at Wrigley? Absolutely. Are they worth the ballpark prices? Probably! They’re only $9 each, not much more than you would’ve paid at Doug’s for a specialty sausage (though, at that price, I’d skip the Polish.)

This is a strange move, one I wouldn’t have predicted. But I’m glad the King is back in any form. With any luck, the experiment will work. He’ll find a groove and maybe liven up the menu over time. And anything that suggests that someday I will be able to order an honest-to-God Teuben again can only be a good thing.

Brian

I’m a tax guy and technical writer living in the city known to its locals as The Big ‘Ago. I self-identify as a fighter against culinary dogma, a sandwich lover, and an overly-earnest hot dog enthusiast.