At Potts' When It's Open, Finally
My parents were in town and I decided to take my Dad for hot dogs once Mom left for a conference in DC. Brit and Van were up for a night of processed meats, so we headed up to Bethlehem. Previously, we had tried Yocco’s, Pete’s, and Dimitrios’ Lunch during a crazy day of hot dogging in the area and hit Jimmy’s a little while later. Since that time, Brit has become addicted to Potts’ and continually hassles me about trying them. I will say this–I don’t understand the hours of a hot dog stand that closes early on a Saturday (6pm). I get their being closed on Sunday, but there have to be a lot of folks who want a Saturday night hot dog. I can’t imagine that business is booming on a Monday night (when they are open until 9pm). In any case, we rolled in on a Wednesday night, I think, and they were open.
Pair of Dogs, Everything with Relish and Cheese
Brit was trying to fill me in on the ordering, but I’m not sure I did it right. I ordered four dogs (a pair each for me and a pair each for my Dad) with everything and cheese, but two of them without relish. Apparently relish isn’t part of the everything, but is in addition to the everything like the cheese. I’ll get it next time, I promise. Everything does mean chili, mustard, and onion.
Dog Half with Spray Cheese Groove
The hot dogs are all griddled to have a nice char. The cheese dogs are special here–the dog is sliced lengthwise and spray cheese is shot into the groove. I’m not making this up, seriously spray cheese from a can, and it tastes delicious. If you’re a Philadelphian and you’re objecting to the idea of spray cheese and insist on having a cheesesteak with Whiz, then you’re disqualified from objection. I objected to the thought of it at first, but thinking it through, I’ve come to terms with it. Spray cheese is really just a processed cheese that is in a convenient form. The serving of hot dogs at Potts’ is extremely efficient and I’m sure that cheese delivered another way would throw off the system.
The chili sauce is slightly spicy, slightly tangy without any beans. It’s a tomato based sauce and isn’t terribly thick, but isn’t super thin either, really medium of the road viscosity wise. The white onions don’t add a lot of bite to the overall flavor, but they’re present in the mix and the mustard is more of a bit player in the background. The relish addition brought some sweetness to the party to balance out the salty, slight spiciness. The dog itself had a good snap which was enhanced by the griddling. There was definitely some visible char on the skin.
The mix of chili sauce and innovative spray cheese application really provide the foundation for this very solid dog. It’s the best dog in the Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton area of Pennsylvania. Easily. As in no contest (I’m splitting hairs and keeping this generalization to the PA side of the border because I love Charlie’s Pool Room so very much). Normally I advance these opinions and then end up debating Brit endlessly, but make no mistake, Brit, The Commish, Van, and my Dad are all in agreement. I have seen the light and the (hot dog) light is Potts’ Doggie Shop.
Tags: bethlehem, cheese, hot dogs, spray cheese
August 5th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
Amen.