American Eats: Illinois. Superdawg

The easy play here would have been to talk about Chicago deep-dish pizza. Which, of course, is extremely controversial. Not to say I don’t have a favorite Chicago-style pizza place. It’s Lou Malnati’s. I went there for the first time back in 2007 before they started expanding across the Chicagoland area.

But I don’t want to talk about pizza. I want to talk about hot dogs.

Most people don’t think of hot dogs have a particular style. Sure, there are different styles that some people are familiar with, like the Coney Island Dog or Chili dog. But the one that gets the most attention from people for it’s unusual presentation? The Chicago-style Hot Dog. The Chicago dog is topped with yellow mustard, chopped white onions, sweet pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomatoes, pickled sport peppers and celery salt. It’s been “Dragged through the garden” as they say in Chicago.

You can get Chicago-style dogs all over Chicagoland. There are more hot dog outlets in the area than major fast-food hamburger joints combined. You can even get them at Chicago’s Midway and O’Hare airports. They’re everywhere.

Chicgoans all have a favorite hot dog joint. Many prefer a famous (or infamous) joint called The Wieners Circle. I haven’t made it to there, but I have made it to Superdawg.

When you order a Superdawg, this is what you get. A full, Chicago-style dog, with all the appropriate fixings, served in a box with deliciously crispy crinkle fries.

There are two different Superdawgs, one in Chicago and one in more suburban Wheeling. Both serve the same great dawg in a no-frills, retro-style environment.

I get it, not everybody enjoys eating hot dogs. But if you only eat one hot dog in your life, make it a Superdawg…

Superdawg
333 S Milwaukee Ave
Wheeling, IL 60090