Did the Windy City Blow in a Winner?

Chicago Dawg House
4300 Chantilly Shopping Ctr
Ste 1N
Chantilly, VA 20151

I haven't been to Chicago in around 16 years.  The closest that I came to going recently was when I was going to go to training in 2009, but the course was canceled.  I've never eaten an actual Chicago style hot dog in Chicago before.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a posting on Fairfax Underground where someone had mentioned that there was a fairly new hot dog place in Chantilly.  I happened to have some business that I needed to take care of down in Chantilly, so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone and eat there while I was in the neighborhood.  I wasn't even that hungry when I went in, but that's ok I just had to try it.

The restaurant is located a few stores down from Willards BBQ, ok it's actually more than a few stores down.  As I walk in, the place seems to be pretty crowded for a Saturday at 2-3pm, granted it's a pretty small store so it doesn't take too many people to make it look even half way busy.  When I walk in I see there's a guy sitting at a table and 2 people sitting at the counter and one person that walked in behind me.  The man at the table greets me saying hello.  I think he's the owner.   I go up to the counter and place my order for a Chicago Dawg, an order of fries, and small Pepsi (they only sell Pepsi products).  The friendly cashier who I believe is the owner's wife suggests I get a combo to save some money.  My total was 6.18 so I try to pay with a $20, but the lady's afraid she might not have enough change.  No problem at all I've got a $5 and 2 $1's.  I sit down at a small table (all their tables are small, they're only 2 seaters).  One of the guys sitting at the counter gets up and goes behind the counter.  Apparently he works there too.  A couple minutes later my hot dog and fries and drink are brought out.  I look down and am disappointed - my weiner looks pretty small.  The hot dog didn't look anything like the hot dog picture that I saw on the wall. It was puny looking.  As I had mentioned before I had never had a Chicago style hot dog before so I don't really know if this was good, bad, or indifferent.  I'll say the flavors were nice, but the toppings seemed a little sparse.  The hot dog was served "traditionally" on a poppy seed hot dog bun with yellow mustard, onions, neon green relish, a wedge of tomato, a dill pickle spear, a sprinkling of celery seeds, and oh yeah of course the sport pepper.  The fries were wonderful.  They were thick steak fry style - my favor because they're thick and potatoey on the inside.  I devoured my weiner and contemplated getting perhaps a chili cheese dog or something else.  I was satisfied, but then again remember I came in not too hungry.


The verdict?  Don't come here if you're hungry!  As much as I wanted to like it, the weiner was just ok.  I also recently heard about Windy City Red Hots out in Leesburg so I'll have to give them a try the next time I'm out that way.  If that doesn't cut it I guess I'll have no choice but to make a trip to the real Windy City and get a Superdawg.