Nathan's Famous: A Dog-Off Challenge!

NATHAN'S FAMOUS HOT DOGS
(Inside Kenny Rogers Roasters Restaurant)
1618 N Highland Av, Hollywood
323.467.5791
Click for a Map to Nathan's Famous

PARTICULARS:
Standard Hot Dog, Sauteed Red Onions, Chili,
Goopy Velveta Cheese, Saurkraut, Krinkle Fries
Housed with a Kenny Rogers Roasters franchise
with all its associated Chicken, Side Salads
and Desserts
Home Turf (sorta): Vic Swarthydogg
Health Department Rating: A

DISTINCTIONS:
Really good dog meat, EXCELLENT Krinkle
Fries, Neat little red Fry Forks

This review started as a challenge. New York Hot Dog expert, Vic Swarthydogg read our Review of Papoo's Hot Dog Show, and was outraged that we gave a good review to a hot dog with avocado on it. He fired off this blistering email to show us how utterly contemptible we were to be wasting our appetites eating "girl dogs"...

Hummph! Rank amateurs.

Only NATHAN's FAMOUS Coney Island 'Death Dog' (or, more properly: "Det' Dawwg", in the authentic Brooklynite modulation) has the requisite amount of snout, pig lips and rodent feces to satisfy the most discriminating sausage-press aficionado.

Eat a real wiener, ya doggone greenhorns!

Now, here at the Hot Dog Spot Research Laboratories, we aren't the kind of guys who take a challenge like that lying down... so we got up and drove to Hollywood to meet Vic as his guest at Nathan's Famous. Located just below Hollywood Bl on Highland, Nathan's Famous sits smack dab in the middle of Tinseltown... a strange location for an authentic slice of the Big Apple. We were doubly surprised when we pulled into the parking lot and realized that Nathan's Famous is inside a Kenny Rogers Chicken franchise! Apparently, Nathan owns Kenny's chicken shacks, and sticks his dogs on the menu to add welcome relief to those tired of Kenny's birds.



Nathan's Famous serves only one kind of hot dog... their own proprietary recipe Standard Dog. For toppings, the menu is also limited... Sauteed Red Onions, Chili, Cheese and Kraut... no shi-shi California avocado or goat cheese here! Vic pointed out that on Coney Island, there's a special Nathan's stand mustard, but it was nowhere to be seen here... just good old Gulden's Brown Mustard. The place looked brand new, so Jon the Food Slob asked the kid behind the counter how long they'd been here. "Eight weeks." was the reply. But in eight weeks, they'd already accumulated their share of autographed head shots from third and fourth string "movie stars". Looking up at the cheezy stills scotch taped on the wall behind the cash register, Steve Doggie-Dogg called out, "Hey! Sherman Hemsley has eaten here! We're movin' on up!"



Anywhere good enough for George Jefferson is good enough for us, so we started figuring out our orders. Steve Doggie-Dogg was considerate enough to check out the Nathan's Famous website before our visit, and he had Coupons for FREE Hot Dogs for everyone. (Yay!) We put in our order... Jon had a dog with Sauteed Red Onions, a Chili Cheese Dog, and an order of Garlic Dill New Potatoes from the Kenny Rogers side. "Hey, you traitor! What's with the girl food?" Vic taunted him, but Jon was secure in his masculinity and determined to have Kenny's taters. Steve ordered four dogs... a Kraut Dog, one with Chili and Cheese, one with Sauteed Red Onions and his regular, Brown Mustard, Onion, Cheese and Tomato. He followed Jon's lead by straying over to Kenny's side of the counter, snagging a nice pile of cole slaw. Vic Swarthydogg proved himself a true-blue traditionalist, ordering one dog with heavy mustard, one with kraut, and one with relish. "Why confuse the issue with more than one topping?" he asked. Vic complemented his solo dogs with an order of cheese fries.



As we sat and waited for the dogs, the TV set in the dining area showed pictures of Oprah Winfrey feeding starving children in Uganda. Vic volunteered to mail Oprah a hot dog to help out, but no one had a stamp with them. Like you'd expect in the heart of Hollywood, the clientele of Nathan's Famous can be politely described as "colorful". One fella wheeled in a shopping cart overflowing with all his worldly posessions, including a battered guitar held together with shipping tape. A group of young hooligans in matching basketball uniforms munched sullenly in the corner, while another guy with a three day growth of beard just stared off into space, muttering to himself. Vic Swarthydogg wasn't at all put off by the complete lack of atmosphere. He made himself right at home, carving out a big chunk of territory at the table (pushing poor Jon to the next table!) and pontificating on how "girl dogs really make him mad." Vic loudly proclaimed to all within earshot (and a few even further!) that "Nathan's dogs are the "Robert Ryan of hotdogs... all else is filth!" The guy muttering in the corner nodded his head blankly in agreement. Vic's colorful commentary passed the time well, considering the dogs took their own sweet time coming out to us.

But it was worth the wait... Here's what the grub looked like...



The buns weren't much to write home about, but the dog meat on top of them was spectacular... right up there with the best Standard Dog we've had so far, rivaling the excellent ones at Carneys for flavor. There was a nice slight snap to the skin, and the juices that squirt out when you chomp down take you straight to hotdog heaven. The toppings were fine too, particularly the Sauteed Red Onions... wonderful glazed onions lightly sprinkled with a unique spicy/salty/sweet coating. The chili was quite good, and it actually had a few beans in it. It would definitely stand up to being eaten on its own. The relish and kraut were acceptable, not too watery or overpowering, but the cheese was a big disappointment. Nathan's Famous serves gloppy Velveta style cheese whizz. It wasn't as bad as the radioactive orange nacho glorp you get in movie theaters that smells like feet, but it wasn't real cheese by any stretch of the imagination. One other caveat... if you want fresh raw onions, ask the guy behind the counter to chop some up for you special. They have a tank of chopped onions next to the mustard squirters, but they get pretty rank sitting there for hours on end.



Jon confirmed that Kenny Rogers' Garlic Dill New Potatoes were delicious, and Steve said the same about his crunchy, freshly made slaw. But the real standout aside from the dogs themselves was the fries. Nathan's serves big, thick krinkle cut fries. They're fresh, hot and delicious with a crunchy skin and smooth, white insides. If you visit Nathan's don't pass them up... just don't get cheese on them. One interesting thing about Nathan's fries is that they come with a weird little red pitchfork. Vic explained that at Coney Island, the fries come in a cardboard boat, not the McDonald's style pocket like we got them in this time. The fork is used to extract fries from the boat while they're still red hot from the fryer... no burned fingers!



When we finished, we patted our bellies and slid back in our chairs... and promptly headed back to the counter for a few more dogs and another order of fries. When that was gone, we patted our bellies, slid back in our chairs and decided before the place closed, we better have dessert ... Kenny Rogers' famous Chocolate Velvet Cake. Unfortunately, it was a pretty ordinary single layer cake with waxy icing. But we won't hold Kenny's transgressions against Nathan. After all, Kenny gave us free refills on the drinks all night. We reluctantly headed for the door when they gave us the not-so-subtle hint of turning off the neon signs and pulling out the mops.

In the parking lot as we headed for our cars, Vic Swarthydogg admitted that it wasn't exactly the same as Coney Island, but it was right up there with the best dogs he's had in Los Angeles. Coming from a certified dog crumudgeon like him, that's high praise indeed. Nathan's Famous is definitely worth a return trip.

UPDATE June 7, 2004

MarcoDog in the Big Apple sent us these great pics of the one and only original Nathan's Famous in Coney Island. This sight's enough to make Vic Swarthydog drool!