Earlier this week, I got a tip from a commenter that another hot dog restaurant is opening soon: Jerry's Wood-Fired Dogs from Orange County, California.
See Also: - Hofmann's Hot Dog Restaurant - The Bowery's Bogus Dogs
Today I talked to the franchise owner Joe Corcoran, who is originally from Dallas but lived in southern California for a while and became a fan of Jerry's Dogs. When he came back home, he decided to bring the concept here. At the time, a year ago, there was only one other hot dog restaurant in Dallas, Wild About Harry's. This summer The Bowery opened in Uptown and news just broke about Hofmann's restaurant in Trinity Groves.
Jerry's is a fast-casual concept and offers all-beef dogs with natural casings and turkey and vegetable dogs too. There's also a kielbasa, jalapeño hot link, Italian sausage and Baja chicken sausage. All of the meats are cooked on a mesquite wood-fired grill and 15 different toppings are available.
There are more than 10 custom dogs, like a pastrami dog, crunchy onion dog and chili cheese Frito dogs. Or you can build your own.
In 2008, Jerry's was anointed Best Hot Dog is the Observer's sister publication OC Weekly:
We've put Jerry's on this list before, long ago. In the intervening years, we've shunned them for cheap national chains and Chicago imports. But now we're coming home. Jerry's Dogs stands firm as OC's very own hot-dog joint, roasting their snappy-skinned Jerry's Signature Dogs ($3.75) and heartburn-inducing Jalapeño Hot Links ($5.15) over a wood fire and winning accolades from other dining critics and Zagat. We won't hold that last part against them, so long as they keep letting us put all the free toppings we want on our wieners.
Corcoran expects Jerry's Wood-Fired Dogs at 6430 Gaston Ave. to open at the end of October.
