I'm Only Here for the Food!

DougieDog
1011 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC

Usually, by Sunday night, I have already decided which posts will be up in the upcoming week. In an odd coincidence, on Sunday night, I receive an email regarding the opening of a new hot dog shop – DougieDog – in Granville Entertainment District. The “coincidence” is that this new place is just around the corner of The DogFather Hot Dogs which was scheduled for Tuesday. With Japadog taking already the crown of “best hot dog” in Vancouver, the question is how well will this new kid on the block fare… (For my posts of Japadog, check here, here and here)

On this visit, I wasn’t by myself. I had agreed to meet frequent reader/commenter Holly and, in the end, I convinced her to try this place. Let’s just say she was more than interested to see how I “work”, hehehehehe. Anyway, in the before mentioned email, there was an URL with their site so that gave me some heads up chance to check their menu. Unfortunately, I got distracted and did not narrow down the list of possible hot dogs to order. In the end, I went for the item #1 “rule” and, along with Holly, we made our order.

Now, aside from hot dogs, they do have another claim of fame: root beer! While I do drink pop/soda once in a while, I tend to go for colas. Sure, I have had root beer in the past, specially the float version but, other than that, I am not that enthusiastic about root beer mainly because of that medicine-like taste. Of course, there are some better than others and I am more than willing to give it a try, if somebody points me to the “right” one. And here is something that surprised me: they suggests “pairing” the hot dogs with the root beers! Now, I won’t go into details as to how these tasted. This is a case where it might be more fun for you to give it a try. What I can say is that the one to the left was better than the Boylan’s. But, enough soda/pop, let’s go to the dogs!

Hot dog #1 (as the first one listed in their menu) is their dougiedog, Dougie’s signature dog, which has Italian pastrami, grey poupon mustard, horseradish and cheddar cheese. Most of the combination work except what makes it unique, i.e., the Italian Pastrami. The reason it did not work for me was that it was a layer of savoury on another layer of savoury. Don’t get me wrong, it was OK by itself; instead, it ended up being where the end result is not as good as its parts. On that note, I must mention something unique about their sausage: they “snap” even after you have started biting into it. Some people might not like this “bite”, thought you should know…

Now, some of you might say WTF is that! OK, there is a pickle but… Is that kimchi??? Yup, you got that right, this is their Seoul Dog, which has Korean BBQ Beef, Kimchi, Pickled Cucumber and sesame.. Unlike the dougiedog which is piling up the same “taste”, here things are more contrasting: the crunchiness from the pickle, the acidity and slight sourness from the kimchi, some sweetness from the beef (which was minimal but still there) and the same sausage characteristic as mentioned above.

Knowing that two hot dogs do not give you a full view of what the restaurant can offer, yesterday, I went there again and picked the one seen above: LA Mexicana – Guacamole salsa, bacon strip, jalapeño peppers and cheddar cheese.. At first, I was wondering… Isn’t there something missing? As I kept on eating it is then that it hit: The guacamole is in the middle and not evenly distributed. OK, I am being too picky now!

The bacon was meh, I could have easily lived without it in this hot dog (heresy!), specially considering there was already a share of fat in the form of cheese. The fact the bacon did not have a crispy feeling did not help at all. The jalapeño was there but did not add much either (remember, I tend to sweat easily when I eat spicy food). However, the guacamole, while not as smooth as fresh made one, did provide some contrasting flavours, in the form of creaminess and acidity – something that the pastrami in the dougiedog failed to accomplish.

Overall, I believe that Dougie Dog provide some good offerings, including some unique ethnic type mix/combinations, but at the same time there is some room for improvement. If I choose to come back, chances are I will stick with those that I know works for me. That brings a wacky question: given their hours, i.e., they close at 4:00 a.m., part of their target is that of people looking for something to eat after clubbing. If that is the case, it might be a good option, specially when you keep in mind the other option is pizza. The question is whether you want to fork $7 for one of these fancy hot dogs (regular costs ~$5) rather than two pizza slices and pop for ~5. And then there is the question of how does it fare against The Dogfather. In my opinion, their offerings are different enough; however, The Dogfather has a better price range. Still, they are unique enough so, in a way, there is room for both. Finally, one more picture…

Please come back tomorrow to find out more about this one!