Sixth Annual YDKJ Hot Dog Tour – Callahan’s Hot Dog Truck

by Alice Magdziak • August 1, 2014 • Food, Hot Dog Tour • Comments (0) • 2386

For six years, we’ve been touring around the Garden State looking for great hot dogs. It all started on a “stay-cation” that we enhanced by having a hot dog lunch every day of the week in honor of Ed’s birthday. Six years later, his birthday has come to mean hot dogs. An honor which is not lost on him. Ed loves a good tube steak. So, when we heard that the Fort Lee classic Callahan’s was starting back up in the form of a hot dog truck we knew where we’d be for the very first stop of the tour this year. Actually, we were so excited for the Callahan’s truck that we started the tour early and met up with them at a Secaucus street fair in June.

They’ve got a classic menu with just three kinds of hot dogs and a variety of toppings. Occasionally, they’ll offer special menu items at a specific event. Past specials have included sausage and peppers sandwiches, onion rings, french fries and chicken fingers. No specials were offered on the day we visited but it didn’t deter us. We were there for dogs and dogs only.

Their drink menu is so limited that they only have Yoo Hoo, Boylan’s Birch Beer, regular Coke and bottled water. We grabbed a Diet Coke from a nearby vendor.

We tried two regular dogs and two super dogs.

The first dog we topped with red onions. The onions were nice and tangy but not very spicy. The dogs were slightly spiced and very meaty.

We also got an all-the-way regular dog which showcased some really good chili. It’s much more like real chili than the Plainfield-type chili topping which can be pretty dry and cinnamon-y. It made the bun fall apart a little bit but it wasn’t too messy.

The Super Dogs were really the star of the show. Bigger, footlong dogs that were deep fried longer than the regular dogs so their skins were all popped open and crispy. We got one the one above with that really great chili and one with just relish and catsup so we could really see the dog. It’s a beautiful thing to see that dog all ripped open from the deep fryer.