Sometimes you make good decisions and sometimes you make bad decisions and sometimes you make good decisions that start out good and end up being not so good. I woke up Saturday morning and decided to go for a bike ride, check out the local garage sales, see if I could find another Vita-Mix (I missed out on the first one). But unfortunately there was nothing good and I only saw maybe 5 sales all-told. So I kept heading south and before you know it I was at Damon and Montrose and figured I could go to Hot Doug’s for a bite. By then it was 10:45 and I figured I could swing it and be back by noon. The day started out maybe high 70’s and I had on jeans. It was what, 90+ on Saturday?

I was a sweat rag on arrival at Doug’s. The line was out the door. I was starving and parched. I was also telling myself that *now* I can eat a hot dog (or two) and fries (duck fat) without any (or less) guilt. I waited in line.

The old Doug’s burned down so they moved across Western on California and Roscoe. Roscoe street doesn’t go through so you have to cross the river at Addison and
then head south on California. He’s on the first or second corner. The
location is good and despite the lines he processes customers
efficiently. It seems that once you have food you tend to have a seat.

The chi-chi sausages are really the reason to go and standing there,
famished, I made bouncy castle the second bad decision of the day, the first being
the jeans  that were heavy with sweat. I ordered the Toulouse sausage
and the duck-fat fries… and the smoky beef bacon sausage. If you
haven’t guessed… it’s too much food.

The real glory of a sausage is the “piled-with-goodness” quality
they start to have. A bratwurst gets better with kraut. Dogs get better with
chili and cheddar and don’t get started with the francheezie…

Hot Doug’s
specials are seen through a gourmet lens. My Toulouse is a chicken
sausage with a scallion-horseradish beurre de Chevre and
truffle-Armagnac chicken mousse… you see? It’s a good decision! The
smoked beef link was wrapped in applewood-smoked bacon with “Buffalo”
mustard and chunks of cheddar-blue cheese. That was a bit much. It was
so Wisconsin. And a huge pile of duck-fat fries.There’s a line out the door for a reason.

So I sat outside on their patio in the shade and ate about 3/4 of the
Toulouse, 1/2 the beef and nibbled on the fries and barely made it
home. Having a bike in Chicago is awesome. On the way to Doug’s I
thought of all the fun places to get lunch, bloody mary’s (not until I
get a helmet), and assorted snacks… on the way back I just
concentrated on making it home.

Shoot an email here if anyone’s interested in weekend destination rides
(fairly slow on the way there… reallly slow on the way back) for
food… Like I need an excuse to eat more…

Hot Doug’s
3324 N. California
773-279-9550
www.hotdougs.com