National Hot Dog Month Day 9

July 9th brought cameraman and photographer extraordinaire, Drew Bennet to the tour. He'll be joining me on many of the remaining stops for National Hot Dog Month 2012 taking pictures and shooting the "second reel" of our videos for each daily video and the "dogumentary." 

This week, we'll be visiting the "Three Pearls" of the greater Boston hot dog vending community. Today was number one: Fred's Franks (curiously owned by a guy named Carl) in Wakefield, MA. Carl grills up Pearl Franks and his specialty of the house is THE SHNURBLE- a grilled, all beef, Pearl Frank with sweet cabbage, mayonnaise, "sharashababa" sauce, and chourico. It is worth the trip!

Drew has a great camera and he takes very good pictures (better than mine). He ought to, he's taken a photo a day for the past eight years or so on the Benspark Blog. Going forward, Drew will be posting most of the (good) photos on the Hot Dog Stories Facebook Page and I'll be doing my thing here and on Hot Dog Stories and Eat West.

Unfortunately, there won't be any videos until the weekend. My laptop had an ugly encounter with a very dry martini this past weekend (with two bleu cheese stuffed olives). The encounter caused the CTRL key to remain stuck, which means the computer isn't recognizing keystrokes for the password login. A new keyboard is on its way, so I should be back in action making the videos soon. I thought my desktop would be up to the task, but it is nearly 7 years old and, in computer terms, a bit of an antique!

You can see the write up of our visit to Fred's Franks in Wakefield, MA today on Hot Dog Stories.

Tomorrow, we venture to Maine!

Fred's Franks: In Search of the Shnurble

To celebrate the last day of training for my new job, the boss sprung for lunch at Fred's Franks! My new co-workers had never been there and they were curious about the Shnurble.

These guys were curious too!

Fred's Franks is owned by Carl Gallasso, a former high tech type who spent 25+ years in the semi conductor business before taking an early retirement (he got laid off) a few years ago. He met former trailer owner, Fred, and bought the business. Carl has the market cornered on cool- just check out those shades!

Carl was grilling up Shnurbles today, as he does every day.

Carl grills on the Big Green Egg grill, "the Original American Designed Ceramic Cooker. Derived from an ancient clay cooker called a "kamado," the modern Big Green Egg has undergone many improvements since it was introduced in 1974. Especially significant is replacement of the clay used in early models with durable space-age ceramics developed specifically for Big Green Egg to make the EGG® virtually indestructible under ordinary cooking conditions."

Carl uses Wicked Good Charcoal, a five hardwood blend of lump charcoal made in Maine. He also throws apple wood into the mix. Good Stuff!

I had to admonish one of my new, young co-workers about putting ketchup on her hot dog...

Soone enough, my Shnurble was done! A Shnurble is a half link of chourico split down the middle, and a quarter pound, Pearl, all beef frank. The meats sits on a bed of sweet cabbage, mayonnaise, Carl's Sharasababa sauce, and Cholula hot Sauce. This is one serious sandwich!

Time to

CHOW DOWN!

It's a serious sandwich that's seriously AWESOME!

Head on up to Wakefield when you get a chance. Fred's is just off the rotary of exit 40 on route 128. Get yourself a Shnurble and make sure you tell Carl "the Hotdogman sent me." Wear your shades too.

Check out the Shnurble on video over at Hot Dog Stories.

What's Up With the Hotdogman?

It was quite an eventful summer for me. I ate a Hot Dog a Day in July to celebrate National Hot Dog Month. The frantic pace of visiting a new venue everyday and producing a video AND a written post was hectic, but a ton of fun. I garnered national attention with appearances in The Metrowest Daily News, The Boston Globe, WCVB Channel 5, NECN, UPI, WZLX- Boston's Classic Rock, NPR and a whole bunch of other places.

My wife and I combined a vacation in Maine with a mini hot dog tour and a trip to Montreal with the first Hot Dog Story done entirely in French.

My lovely wife has a great sense of humor, but she can't quite understand how writing and filming videos about hot dogs and hot dog joints can generate income. While I am not getting rich, I am earning money with my "new found fame" from advertising revenue, affiliate links and Adsense.

Writing about (one of ) my passions is genuine and fun. I have found an audience!

The whole stunt about eating a hot dog a day has opened up some interesting opportunities for me. I will be producing at least two hot dog documentaries about Boston area icons. These will have far better production values than my current portfolio of videos, but they will still have the same reverence for the hot dog and sense of fun that has made this whole series successful.

Other opportunities have presented themselves as a result of my quest and led to an interesting new job for the Hotdogman. I am getting into the infomercial business! I won't say too much about it right now, other than training started yesterday. Our training was up in Wakefield, MA- right near Fred's Franks. Naturally, everyone in training wanted to go for hot dogs.

I only had one taker today, so we rolled over to Fred's Franks (curiously owned by a guy named Carl) for a Shnurble. A Shnurble is an interesting "sandwich." It's a quarter pound Pearl, all beef frank, served on a large sub roll with a half a link of Chourico, sweet cabbage, mayonnaise, cholula hot sauce and Carl's own Sharasababa sauce. It is, quite possibly, the single most unique, regularly available hot dog in greater Boston.

My coworker, Dave, gave the Shnurble "two thumbs up!"

I had my flip cam with me and I shot this short video.

A Hot Dog a Day Number 20: Fred's Franks in Wakefield, MA

On July 20, the 20th day on my journey to eat a hot dog a day in honor of National Hot Dog Month, I took the Pike to 128 north where I got off at exit 40 in Wakefield. 

Just off the rotary, on the shore of Lake Quannapowitt in Wakefield, MA, sits a funky little converted landscape trailer that serves up some of the most insanely delicious hot dogs I have tasted all summer: Fred's Franks.

The set up looks a lot like another one of my favorite joints, Snappy Dogs.

Owner Carl Galasso greets every customer with a smile. He bought Fred's Franks a couple years ago after he was laid off from his job as an engineer in the semiconductor industry. He risked it all to go into the hot dog business: he sold his house, cashed in his 401K and dove in head first. Boy am I glad he did- Fred's Franks serves up the most ridiculous hot dogs and sausages in the Boston area. Carl won't change the name because Fred's Franks has great rankings in Google and a loyal, if borderline cult-like, following.

Helping Carl in the trailer today was new employee Ed who takes the money and hands out rolls and sodas. Ed is a true American who believes in freedom of choice; he unfortunately exercises that freedom somewhat irresponsibly by allowing people over the age of 18 to put ketchup on their hot dogs! Since it was his first day, I cut him a little slack (but not much).

Ed is replacing Ryan who has worked along side both Fred and Carl. This was Ryan's last day. :o(

Fred's Franks has been the most suggested joint for me to visit by my fans, so when Mike from The Hot Dog I Ate emailed me and asked me to join him at Fred's for lunch, I couldn't resist. Fred's is a mile away from Mike's house and he is a frequent patron. Mike has been blogging about hot dogs about as long as I have, though he tends to take a more "literary" approach to the endeavor. He knows his stuff too, he explained the cooking processes and menu like he owned the joint.

The menu at Fred's Franks is pretty straight forward- there are hot dogs, kielbasa, linguica, and chourico. Carl serves up a Pearl, all beef frank which he grills to crispy perfection on one of two "green egg" grills stoked with real charcoal and apple wood.

There are daily specials too, like the grilled steak tips. I saw a few customers with the steak tips and I will be returning to Fred's during National Steak Tip Month- they looked DELISH.

Condiments are self serve and include a few types of mustard, relish, onions, kraut, sweet cabbage and Carl's own special sharashaba sauce.

The specialty of the house is the Shnurble- a quarter pound Pearl frank with two slices of chourico dressed with mayonnaise, sweet cabbage and the aforementioned sharashaba sauce. Believe me when I tell you this picture doesn't come close to doing this dog justice.

I took a deep breath and

CHOWED DOWN!

He likes it, hey Mikey!

I don't have enough thumbs to put up for this hot dog- GO TO WAKEFIELD AND GET A SHNURBLE!

Carl sez: TWO THUMBS WAY UP!

This is a "must eat" hot dog- it should be on your hot dog "bucket list." So stop by Fred's Franks, just of the rotary at exit 40 in Wakefield, and tell Ed and Carl "the Hotdogman sent me."

HAPPY NATIONAL HOT DOG MONTH!!!

Check out the video of my visit to Fred's Franks on Hot Dog Stories.