Real Housewives' Husband Brings Hot Dogs to Fort Worth, and It, too, Is a Work In Progress

In 2010, after having dabbled in film producing, real estate and the hair extension business, Dennis McKinley, husband of Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams, decided to open a hot dog joint in Smyrna, Georgia. The idea came from his love of hot dogs, which developed when he was a kid growing up in Detroit. He has since branched out from Georgia with The Original Hot Dog Factory franchises in Charlotte, North Carolina, Miami, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Alabama and now Fort Worth.

This location has been open for about three months, and it still getting its bearings. The spot shares space with a hookah bar, and you have to ring a bell at the restaurant counter to let them know someone wants to order a dog. One assumes that, eventually, they’ll be able to hire more people, but that’s the situation right now. The A/C also needs to be fixed or recharged, but they do have a plethora of fans sitting about the dining area, the seating for which consists of your basic hot dog-joint counter that you can either stand at or sit at on a stool.
Several varieties of dogs live on the menu including, but not limited to, a street Polish, a Detroit coney, a Chicago dog, a Carolina slaw dog, New Yorker, BLT, Hawaiian, an LA dog, Texas Rodeo, Boston dog, Memphis dog, taco dog and Frito pie dog. There are a lot of dogs to choose from, each running around $7 and all of which can be ordered in burger form as well. Combos, which come with fries or onion rings and a drink, will add about $4 to that total.

The Texan among us loves Frito pie. It’s something that this Chicagoan has tried to get past. It’s a character flaw to be sure, but relationships are all give and take. We persevere through these head-scratching food preferences and soldier on. In any event, we decided upon the Frito pie hot dog and the street Polish and ordered a combo of both, one with fries, one with rings, and the house lemonade and house “surprise” drink.
The surprise drink turned out to be a blue raspberry lemonade with pieces of strawberry lounging at the bottom of the cup. The lemonade was lemonade. Both were fine, if a bit on the sweet side, but this is to be expected. The surprise was a bit light on the raspberry flavor, but it looked good.

The Frito pie hot dog was a bit of a disappointment in that the chili was not really chili at all but rather a somewhat thin tomato sauce seasoned with chili powder. No chunks of meat or beans or whatever. It was also a bit skimpy on the cheese. The dog itself was of a decent girth, which should count for something. The fries were meh.
The street Polish was … well, as it turned out, they were out of Polish sausages that day, so we quickly pivoted to the bratwurst dog: a deep-fried brat topped with sauerkraut and grilled onions, ordered with a side of onion rings.

This was a tad disappointing as well. The small brat almost disappeared into the bun and was served with no condiment at all. We double-checked the menu, and sure enough, no mustard is mentioned, so that’s on us. The onion rings were the best part of the meal, just thick enough and not mired in grease.
So, was it worth the drive? No way. It would be a considerable jaunt for anyone coming from any part of Dallas, and at this point, we’d probably just wait for the location that supposedly is coming to Dallas proper soon. We’d be willing to try some of the other varieties, many of which sound good, if we didn’t have to spend a couple of hours in the car to do so.

6318 Hulen Bend Blvd., Fort Worth. Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.; closed Sunday.