Whether we want to admit it or not, the fact is summer in Portland is winding down. That means you should look at every day as an opportunity to get outside and enjoy a tasty treat of the season. We've provided options for drinking and dining on a plethora of patios as well as spots to get tropical drinks, ice cream sandwiches, and late-night burgers, but what about the burger's natural summertime ally?
Because we live in Portland, a city filled with talented and resourceful chefs, our hot dog offerings are most definitely not limited to the all-beef franks of ballparks and backyard barbecues. From the street vendor to the pub and restaurant, each serves up its own variety of dogs, dressing them up with toppings, wrapping them in puff pastries, or hand-dipping them in batter.
So, you have no excuse. Get out there and enjoy the dog days of summer with a hot dog, corn dog or sausage while you still can.
Super Boufo
Translated from Greek, Super Boufo (pronounced BOO-foh) playfully means "big, lovable moron." But owner-operators Steele Tsoumas and Connor Morales are anything but fools—they're both enrolled at PSU where Tsoumas is majoring in marketing and Morales is studying business administration. From their new hot dog stand, located just outside the Silver Dollar Saloon, the duo offers up dogs of all stripes, but their Portland Dog is likely considered their specialty. For a proper Portland Dog, opt for a double smoked Zenner's all-pork sausage (stuffed with cheese and bacon), bunned in a grilled Franz Bakery pioneer roll, and finished off with a winding stripe of cream cheese, a sprinkling of shredded Tillamook cheddar, and a liberal helping of onions, lightly sautéed with fresh rosemary. The dogs spit when they're cooking and snap when you bite them. And all the ingredients are as local as Tsoumas and Morales can muster: Super Boufo showcases only local condiments, and even the rosemary is picked from the yards of agreeable and supportive neighbors who live just down the block. Can't make it up to the northwest location? Tsoumas and Morales operate an additional cart near PSU's campus, which they man in between classes when school's in session.
Super Boufo, corner of NW 21st Avenue and Glisan Street
Paddy's
What ingredients separate a sausage from a banger? Bangers have trace amounts of nutmeg, but according to Paddy's chef Kannon Chrisman, bangers also lack one key sausage seasoning: fennel. So how, then, does one turn British bangers Irish? Kannon hand dips his Zenner's all-pork bangers in his house batter, a blend of seasoned flour and draft Harp, an Irish lager produced in Ireland's famed Guinness Brewery. Light, golden, crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside, these bite-sized "corn" dogs come with a small side of chips. To get the proper experience, ask for mustard in which to dip your dogs, as well as some malt vinegar, because French fries aren't chips without it. These Irish bangers are only available during happy hour, but Paddy's has two of them, from 4 to 6:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day.
Paddy's, 65 SW Yamhill St., 503.224.5626
The Fish & Chip Shop
Brits are often ridiculed for their native cuisine, which many consider bland. If you're critical of British food, you might want to reconsider and try The Fish & Chip Shop owner Mick Shillingford's sausage rolls. The sausages, traditional, all-pork British bangers, courtesy of SP Provisions, are wrapped in puff pastries and paired with three mounds of garlic mashed potatoes. And to give the plate a proper British oomph, the bangers and mash are both subjected to a generous helping of a classic, savory brown British gravy. The sausage rolls take about 25 minutes to prepare—this plate, like all of Shillingford's offerings, are made to order, ensuring that everything you eat is as fresh as possible—so stretch out on a sofa, knock back a pint, and chat with some mates. Or, you could wander into the adjacent TARDIS Room and catch up on your Doctor Who, as episodes of the British sci-fi show are screened on the neighboring pub's flat-screen.
The Fish & Chip Shop, 1218 N Killingsworth St., 503.232.3344
Interurban
What makes a corn dog good: the dog or the batter? At Interurban, it's both. The dog, an all-pork, 10-inch frank butchered and cast by the folks at Olympic Provisions, could stand on its own. So why batter it? Because the mixture Interurban's kitchen crew makes isn't your usual corn dog batter. It's a properly measured composition of masa, sugar, onions, milk, and flour that renders into a crispy hushpuppy casing, in the words of the staff. Interurban's corn dog is paired with zucchini chips, pickled in-house, which help cleanse your palate in between bites, allowing you to properly pick your favorite corn dog mustard dipping sauce (yellow, dijon, whole grain, or a spicy, sweet, homemade selection made with honey and wasabi). Should you split a corn dog with your sweetheart and still feel hungry, keep in mind that Interurban also uses those exact same franks for its inventive and always-changing daily dogs.
Interurban, 4075 N Mississippi Ave., 503.284.6669
Hungry Tiger Too
Thanks to Portland's talented butchers, beef franks are much harder to find than good, old-fashioned pork franks, but what if you don't eat animal products, let alone meat? Hungry Tiger's corn dogs are vegan, and they taste the way you remember corn dogs of yore—the batter, prepared by the kitchen using OTA soy milk, is familiar and classic tasting. The franks themselves are Yves-brand veggie dogs, and they're paired with a basket of hand-cut French fries. If you're looking to spice these dogs up, you can dip them in Hungry Tiger's housemade hot sauces: Your choices include the mild verde sauce, which has a slight kick, and the pub's far more aggressively spiced habanero sauce. Unsure if corn dogs are your thing, let alone vegan corn dogs? Stop in during Wednesday happy hour when cans of PBR are just a buck and vegan corn dogs go for only $1.25 a pop. Whether or not the adult in you eats meat, the kid inside will thank you.
Hungry Tiger Too, 213 SE 12th Ave., 503.238.4321
When you need a hot dog fix, where do you go? The pub? The cart? Who makes the best dogs in the city? Let us know.
I can honestly say that I cannot choose which one of these dogs most appealed to me. They were all *that* good, because they were all so *different* from one another.
What I did like were the little things that went along with them: the rosemary'd and sauteed (yet still wonderfully crunchy) onions on Super Boufo's dog, the hand-cut fries (and the hot sauces!) at Hungry Tiger, the sweet 'n' spicy mustard at Interurban, the fish 'n' chip beer-batter at Paddy's and (besides Mick's ability to tell a good story) the Fish & Chip Shop's parsley-garlic mashers that are, at once, both smooth and chunky.