I'll have four "with," and a zippy burger

Four "with" at Famous Lunch

The two best mini-hot dogs joints in upstate New York, and possibly the world, are right across the river from each other. Do you like the Capital Region? These two restaurants relieve my basic tension with this geographic area. Actually there's plenty to recommend this region, lots to do, and all sorts of interesting people... and let me leave it at that. Otherwise I might start cursing and spitting uncontrollably.

What made me a fan of the mini dog? Growing up in Albany, we had Hot Dog Charlie's. The works and meat sauce on six or eight mini dogs and getting a side of onion rings was a pretty typical aspect of my Hot Dog Charlie's visit. The french fries, I could do without: I don't like serrated cut fries from a bag of frozen. So if you choose to find one in Troy, Lansingberg, Guilderland, or wherever, enjoy. There are good locations and bad locations. I have nothing more to say about Hot Dog Charlie's this week.

Take exit eight on 787, stay in Watervleit, and go to 25th street near the Citgo station.



GUS'S

Watervleit, NY. Gus's Hot Dogs. An endearing Greek family runs this amazing little restaurant in a Ukranian section of Watervleit. Mini dogs with the works, Greek burger, Sausage sandwich, Cheeseburger with meat sauce. The Greek burger is a green pepper and onion hamburger on a bun. There is no cheese in the "works." The meat sauce is a spicy, not too saucy, red and brown, chuck filled concoction.

Great place to walk up to the window, order outside, and get a quick meal. There are park benches. They plant flowers every year throughout the paved yard. In the colder months, one can sit at the counter or at one of two booths. Often an old Greek man, or the old woman who owns the place, is seated near the booths splitting hundreds of hot dog buns with a machine.

My usual routine is go inside, get a seat at the counter, look around for a Troy Record newspaper, order my food, and eat. Then, hopefully, my indigestion is on the mild side. Not overeating key if I don't want to suffer, but I do find on the whole that their competitor Famous Lunch is a little on the cleaner side.

FAMOUS LUNCH

Troy, NY. Famous Lunch. Also Exit 8 on 787. Take the Green Island Bridge to Troy, to the corner of 5th St. and Congress Avenue. Great place for some dogs "with," a Zippy burger, homemade french fries, or a deluxe breakfast. Good sausage sandwiches, too. Again, no cheese with the works. Owner Scott, who inherited the business from generations of his family (they've been open since 1932), always appears to be around making sure things run okay. An impressive blurb from Gourmet magazine (written by a guy who now works for the Village Voice) sits on the wall with several other glowing write-ups.

The most important element is the meat sauce. Large stock pots are made twice a week, so the taste can vary a bit from visit to visit--but the meat sauce always tastes fresh. It's homemade, and presumably the guys making the stuff are cooks, not bakers. I'd venture to say there's some tasting going on, and anything made "to taste" is going to vary from cook to cook. I always like the sauce, even when it's a little sweet. Sometimes it's a on the darker side, a bit fatty with a sustained bite. My only note is that the buns, and the onions, are a bit cold. It hardly affects the pure pleasure I experience when eating the dogs. (The fact is these elements don't sit on the grill, so the trade-off is something I have to accept. I am very susceptible to the smallest amount of cross contamination. Indeed, sometimes I think I make myself suffer on purpose. But, I think the key to the quality at Famous is the separate griddle just for the hot dogs. The buns, and the dogs, go nowhere near a raw burger, eggs, or sausage sandwich.)

Visits to these two restaurants make me wonder whether I am a gourmet or a gourmand. I've been told to slow down, that I wolf my food. Well, I'm that excited by these hot dogs and until recently I'd eat as much as I could until full-to-bursting. Perhaps it's the the texture, the mouth feel, of a Gus's cheeseburger with meat sauce or a Famous Lunch mini-dog "with," rather than the taste. I'd almost believe it if I wasn't always already on a vigilant look-out for great meat sauce.

Expect a part two and three to this series, covering mini-dogs across this region of the great Empire State.