Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Zogg's Doggs

Zogg's Doggs

At first glance at the name of this restaurant, you would think it came from a Dr. Seuss book. However it did not. The owner knew he liked hot dogs, and wanted to run a business, therefore Zogg's Doggs was spawned by an out of work victim of the movie industry gone belly-up in Michigan. An address of 135 1/2 should be the first clue that this is not your run-of-the-mill hot dog place. The menu was developed from mid-afternoon trial and error experiments. Having 40 different options for hot dogs is a crazy number, and they are not done yet. Nothing is pre-made so even a specialty dog can be made on the spot, so having 40 or 50 or more options is great for an owner. Not to mention the fun job of trying to find the next delicious hot dog.

Atmosphere- In having a So-Cal influence that bordered between a skate park and a tiki-hut, there was a lot of eclectic tastes in a small space. The surfboard that meets you when you walk in was the first inspiration piece for decoration. Along one wall there was even a TV and video game system for customers to play. Seriously, why haven't people thought of this before? Everyone wants food while gaming so why not put a gaming system in your restaurant? Just put a timer on the system so people don't sit and play 6 hours of some mind numbing game while only buying one hot dog. B-

Value- Each of their dogs costs only $3.00 which is a very fair price considering the number of hot dog options (40), toppings and specialty toppings (26), veggies (12), cheeses (9) and meats (6). I had three dogs on this trip which included the Pastrami Tsunami, the Mahalo Dogg and the Burnin' House Dogg. The Tsunami had pastrami, jalapeno bacon, cream cheese on the bottom, mozzarella cheese and banana peppers. The Mahalo consisted of baked beans, shredded cheese, onions, and bacon bits across the dogg. Out of the three, I preferred the Burnin' House Dogg the best. The all beef hot dog(g) was topped with bleu cheese, buffalo wing sauce and dashes of celery salt. Out of all the places I have gone to eat hot dogs that were created by the owner, this dog tops the list. The other two dogs were mighty tasty, but I honestly wish I tried three of the Burnin' House Dogg's instead. Take my 3 bucks any time man! A-

Side Dish Jody says...
Although I thoroughly enjoyed watching Hot Dog Guy eat the Burnin' House Dogg, the selection of non-hot dog options was far fewer than the rest of the menu. My selection was limited to a walking taco, chips/chili/cheese or one of three side dishes - baked beans, mac-n-cheese, or coleslaw. I tried both the coleslaw and mac-n-cheese. The coleslaw was nothing spectacular however the mac-n-cheese was quite flavorful with flecks of black pepper throughout. They could also really improve their beverage selection by offering fountain drinks instead of cans. C-