In Memory of Hot Doug’s

I wasn’t always this interested in culinary exploration. But Chicago changed the way I think about food. Since I moved there, I discovered that some of the most brilliant, innovative artists that the city has to offer are not only the ones who build the art galleries, street murals, and warehouse collectives in places like Pilsen or Humboldt Park. But there are also many talented people who work in the restaurants and the kitchens all across the city every single day. And their creations are among the best that you will find anywhere.

Among the very best of them was Hot Doug’s – the wildly popular hot dog restaurant in the Avondale neighborhood. For 13 years, owner Doug Sohn had served a variety of amazing hot dogs and sausages, including classic Chicago-style dogs, Polish sausage, and beer soaked bratwurst, to thousands of loyal, hungry people.

But what really made his restaurant stand out was the gourmet specialty selection. His menu rotated ten different gourmet sausages of all different kinds of game meats, aged cheeses, sauces, and other random flavorful combinations and toppings, all on a hot dog bun.

Over the years, I had patronized his store for things like a Thanksgiving Turducken Sausage with pumpkin cream and cranberry-infused gourmet cheese, a smoked shrimp and pork hot dog with Cajun shrimp remoulade, goat cheese and honey drizzle. And sometimes just a plain old Chicago style hot dog with all the decorations would suit me just fine.

But he was best known for his world famous Foie Gras Hot Dog. A foie gras and sauternes duck sausage with a spread of truffle aioli, chunks of foie gras mousse, and a dash of fleur de sel sea salt. It was as legendary as the culinary kings of old, and is still to this day one of the best things I have ever eaten.

It was amazing enough to capture the attention of Anthony Bourdain, who had nothing but great things to say about it when he visited the restaurant. Thanks to the publicity, the clientele in that otherwise uneventful industrial corridor in Avondale continued to explode.

In May of 2014, owner Doug Sohn announced on his website that he planned to close the store for good in October of that year, giving his patrons five months to enjoy whatever they could from his one of a kind menu. Since then, the lines became exponentially more and more insane. Before, I would wait ten minutes in line on any given weekday, but after the announcement it took me at least two hours to get inside. I went once on a Saturday at the end of June and got through the line three hours later. And it didn’t slow down. It doubled, tripled, and quadrupled in size over the summer.

Having just got back from a five week trip to Virginia at the end of August, I wanted to go one last time, and it was now or never. So on the following Saturday, Mike and I agreed to meet in line at 8am. Word on the street was that the wait time was about 8.5 hours (yes, I’m serious) if you failed to beat the morning surge, so I bumped it ahead to 7:00 for safe measure.

We lucked out. When I got there, the sun was coming up and only ten people stood ahead of me. Crowds started showing up exponentially over the next few hours, backing up to what looked like a 6 hour wait around 9am. It didn’t stop there; the line kept growing and growing.

Our wait turned out just shy of 4 hours, and was actually quite a bit of fun. The ladies in front of us generously shared Bloody Marys with us to help kill the time. Because why not tailgate to such a noteworthy occasion?

Before we knew it, it was 10:30 and the doors opened. The bittersweet feeling of closure was already setting in as I walked inside for the last time. Doug was at the front counter taking orders as he always did, giving Cindy a hard time for having never been to Hot Doug’s before. His banter was as fun as ever, easily getting the customers laughing at the expense of one or two people. “What am I gonna do, get a bad review on Yelp?”

Mike and I put in our orders and sat down with our new friends at a table for five.

We both got a Foie Gras Hot Dog for obvious reasons. In addition, we ordered four more sausages and shared halves of them: The Smoked and Spicy Alligator Sausage with Crayfish and Shrimp Remoulade and Raspberry-infused Bellavitano Cheese, the Smoked Shrimp and Pork with Creole Mustard, Hominy Grits and Goat Cheese, a Veal Saltimbocca Sausage with Sage Mustard, Sheep’s Milk Brigante Cheese and Fried Prosciutto, and a Lamb and Pork Belly with Onion Butter, Brie Cheese and sweet fucking Tomato Preserves.

I didn’t know what half of that stuff even was. But it all tasted as awesome as it sounds.

And I’m never one to waste any time savoring the flavors, fuck that. Even if they are out of this world. A few months before, I had visited Au Cheval, a great diner in the West Loop that is well known among locals for their high quality cheeseburgers. As soon as I finished one, a guy came up to me and told me that it was the fastest he had ever seen anybody eat a burger. And he was right. When something is that good, I will mow it the fuck down.

Mike was pretty much the same way. We finished off our share of the sausages with some room left for duck fat fries. The ladies finished their decadent array of gourmet food and we all got up, satisfied and sad all the same that our favorite place in town would soon be gone forever.

When I walked outside, the line was at least as long as a football field.

It’s been ten years since Doug closed his iconic sausage restaurant. Since then, there has been no shortage of great places where I could still find a good Chicago style hotdog or Maxwell Polish sausage. For a time, the cooks from Hot Doug’s even opened their own restaurant in the northside, Hot G Dog, and continued to sell Doug’s style of gourmet sausages to people like me, Mike, and anyone else who didn’t want to let go. But eventually they, too, moved on.

Because it was a great thing for a moment, and nothing great lasts forever.

Chicago always keeps me coming back for its food. Since Hot Doug’s made its historic closure, many other chefs and restauranteurs have continued to craft unique creations in their kitchens, contributing to what is still an exceptional food scene. And I will continue to explore it for as long as I can. But I don’t know if anything will ever capture the magic and the moment of what Doug Sohn had done. As it continues to resonate in my thoughts, I am certain that Hot Doug’s will be remembered for many years to come as a truly, truly quintessential culinary venture.

#foodporn courtesy of Mike Bacos