7th Annual YDKJ Hot Dog Tour – Franx, Union

by Alice Magdziak • August 30, 2015 • Food, Hot Dog Tour, Union • Comments (0) • 1988

Franx is a Hot Dog Tour stop that has been really hard for me to figure out how to write up. On one hand, the hot dogs were good. On the other hand, everything else about our visit was unexpectedly bad.

So, we got to Franx at 5:40pm and their hours said they closed at 6:00pm. I didn’t worry too much about that, though, because we were going to order fast stuff like hot dogs and fries. OK, maybe a sandwich from their interesting menu but we certainly weren’t planning on being there after 6:00pm or anything so I didn’t think showing up 20 minutes before closing would be a problem. So, we walked in and both ladies behind the counter were staring daggers at us. It was pretty uncomfortable. If Ed had said the word, I would have been happy to walk out. He didn’t, so we approached the counter. One lady didn’t speak to us the entire time we were there even though she was standing at the counter. The other lady told us that everything was closed down except for hot dogs. Well, that was OK since we were mostly there for the dogs but it was disappointing that everything else was closed down during business hours.

We placed our order and got stared at some more so we weren’t even comfortable eating in the restaurant. We took our dogs to the car and watched the ladies lock up before 6:00pm and practically race out of the parking lot. It was kind of surreal. Here’s where the dilemma comes—the hot dogs were really really good.

This is the Turbo Chili Dog. All their dogs are Sabretts and this one came with really good chili, cheddar cheese and crushed up Fritos. The bun was a nice big potato bun which handled the large amount of chili, cheese and chips. I kind of wished I’d ordered two of these they were so good.

Second, we had the Nikko’s Soulfire dog with slaw, jalapeños and garlic mayo. This was really delicious, too. The spicy hot dog was enhanced with the spicy peppers and zesty slaw and mayo.

Then, we had the Thai This Dog which had peanut butter, vinegar slaw and Sriracha. Again, the Sabrett hot dog, which can sometimes overpower mild toppings, was showcased with spicy toppings and a great slaw.

Finally, we tried the Waygu Dog which really intrigued me when I read the menu before arriving. It’s a 100% American Waygu Beef hot dog with a pork casing and was served with Polish brown mustard and onion kraut. This hot dog is a full 1/3 pound of meat and was easily twice as large as the other dogs. The hot dog was a little mild for my taste but I guess that’s so you can really taste the special beef. The onion kraut was interesting but I probably would stick with the Sabretts and the interesting toppings if I’d come back.

And, that’s a big IF I come back. Sometimes good customer service can help a place with OK food and sometimes I don’t want to go back to a place with good food because of a lack of good customer service. I actually hope the ladies behind the counter had an emergency or something and aren’t like that every day. If you do decide to try these admittedly really great dogs, I’d suggest going for lunch so you arrive several hours before they close.

Check out all the pictures from our short visit inside Franx: