Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Hot Dogs are one of my favorite food groups. I'm drooling from the picture of a Jimmy's RedHot and want one now. This post just adds to my urge to make a Great American HotDog Tour of the midwest [i.e. Chicago] and upper east coast. I'll be adding Jimmy's RedHots to the list of places to dine at. I'm of the mustard only school of HotDogs so I'll have a good base to judge on most likely it will end up an all-way tie. I bought a pack of RedHots made by a Chicago Co. and hope I can reproduce something close to a real RedHot.

a Chicago dog w/o the cucumber & tomato does seem like a revelation to me -- I've always thought it was a bit much to add all that stuff to a humble dog. yet, it's so yellow/green without... ketchup! yes, I said it! I like ketchup on my dogs, just a little bit!

of note: the Chicago cop eating at this establishment. cops know all the good foody dives, so based on that, you should've known before your first bite that you were in for something good.

So what came first, Gene & Jude's or Jimmy's?

I'll never understand why anti-ketchup people are so ridiculously militant.

Nice report! I've never been to Chicago, but have had an authentic Chicago style dog at a place in New Jersey that was opened by a native Chicagoan and even authenticated by the president of Vienna Beef. I went to this particular place many times to the point that I aquired a taste for the Chicago hot dog. It was much better than the Shake Shack's version in New York. I'm a minimalist (usually prefering just mustard) so I would probably like Gene & Jude's the best. Also I prefer a more flavorful grilled dog to one that is heated in water or steamed. And I like the more well seasoned beef dogs in the East (Sabrett, Boar's Head, Best's of N.J.) rather than Vienna, but Vienna is a great choice if you are going to have all of the ingredients on your dog. A more flavorful dog would overwhelm the other condiments and throw everything out of balance.

@wunami: Thanks for spoiling.

WTF?