Visit #3 - May 31st, 2014

It can be hard to tell when summer really begins in Chicago.  The pools don't open until June, but usually as early as mid-May, you can have temps reaching into the mid 80s and when you live in an apartment without A/C, you can feel it.  Some people like to view Memorial Day as the "unofficial" beginning of summer and wear the white pants to prove it; and others feel that summer in Chicago begins once the numerous street festivals start popping up (such as Do Division, which is this weekend*.)  For me, summer begins when you see people outside Hot Doug's selling bottles of water for a dollar as others wait in line.  Sometimes there's even a dude selling ice cream.  I've never bought water or ice cream from these folks, but it's a reminder that a) yeah, it's pretty warm out and, b) it's pretty warm out and you're standing in a line for 2 hours to eat some sausage.

Today, I started waking up around 6:45am for some godforsaken reason and after running some errands, I made the walk to Doug's.  Before I knew it, it was 9:02am and I was fourth in line.  A solid 90 minutes before opening and there were already three folks in front of me, including someone I saw during my last visit.  Naturally I propped up against the wall, opened up my copy of Pink Noises, and waited.  While listening to a guy who was entertaining his mother-in-law as she visited the city this weekend, buds Chris and Jordana showed up.  Talk quickly turned to sausage, going over the menu a few times and verifying that the steak sausage was still available (it was, thank goodness.)

  I think there might be at least one more sausage that didn't make it in this picture.

One thing about Chris and (now) Dr. Jordana (yay!) is that, even though they aren't originally from the midwest, they take their sausage seriously.  Granted, I doubt either of them have had polish sausage from E & J down in Burbank, but, you know, they mean business when it comes to this stuff.  Therefore, I wasn't surprised when they ordered 5 sausages and 2 corndogs to be split between the two of them.  While the patio was open, we opted to stay inside in the beautifully chilled confines of Doug's.  As we ate, I mentioned how Doug's is the best restaurant in Chicago, which led to some questions like "Do you really think that?" and "Why?" from Dr. Jordana.  While I'm not a doctor, I'd like to think that I held my ground just fine.

Today, I continued my battle with the Chicago-style hot dog.  I forwent the ketchup and had the following toppings - pickle, onions, relish and celery salt.  It was pretty good, but I'm still not sure if I prefer it to my main man Heinz over there.  The steak au poivre sausage was pretty wild.  While I don't drink, I'm very much a fan of cooking with bourbon (undoubtedly influenced by Beth as she spent a few years living in "Bourbon Country"), so when I saw "Four Roses bourbon mustard", I got a little too excited.  According to wikipedia, steak au poivre is some sort of steak, usually filet mignon, that is coated with cracked peppercorns.  I've never had it, but the sausage form of it was delicious.  There was also a corn dog and fries to round everything out.  Those had plenty of ketchup on them.

I didn't get a chance to get a glimpse of the line as we left around 11:10, but before the door opened the line was already stretching past the alley.  As we walked out and I noticed the bottles of water being sold and that the temperature was easily 15-20 degrees warmer outside than it was inside Doug's, I knew summer was here, and that I should probably look into buying a window unit sooner rather than later.

Here's the tally:

Chris & Dr. Jordana - Sonoran Dog (jalapeño polish sausage with jalapeño mayonnaise, jalapeño bacon, pinto beans, tomatoes and onions), escargot and guanciale sausage with parsley-garlic goat butter and double crème brie cheese, smoked and spicy alligator sausage with cajun shrimp remoulade and goat cheese, fire dog with everything**, steak au poivre sausage with Four Roses bourbon mustard, emmental cheese and crispy fried onions, two corn dogs.

Myself - Steak au Poivre sausage with Four Roses bourbon mustard, emmental cheese and crispy fried onions, hot dog (charred) with caramelized onions, pickle, celery salt, relish, corn dog and fries.

*Did anyone else catch High on Fire last night? 

**For those playing at home, "everything" at Hot Doug's means "caramelized onions, relish, tomatoes, pickle, celery salt and mustard."