Passed by this place a few times and finally decided to stop in. It was just two of us this time…read more I figured we'd try the eponymous Jersey Dog, which we got built on a Big Dog foot-long chassis... but first should explain how ordering works. At the top of the menu are three choices of dog (Sabrett dirty water dog, Thumanns, and Big Dog, which is a footlong. The last two are deep fried), with base prices. I guess you can just get a plain dog that way; and in fact, you can get free toppings as mentioned in the 2nd section of the menu (entitled "Free Toppings"!) - some of which are housemade gourmet options. You then pick the toppings/style in the paid section (marked "Deluxe Toppings") and I assume most people just jump straight to this. We wanted to try the Jersey Dog and were torn for a 2nd dog: deciding between the Pizza Dog and the Burrito Dog but finally decided on the burrito dog since it seemed a bit more exotic. Both were excellent, but if you'd like a breakdown, here goes:
The Jersey dog is described as having yellow American cheese but I don't recall seeing any. The hashbrown is legit, and it's huge. The bun is huge as well, to better hold all this deep-fried goodness. My only criticism of this particular dog is that it's quite starchy. The top half of the bun (the part that's not full of Big Dog) was packed with hashbrown and the combination of that with the bun (though it was an excellent bun!) was too starchy. I counteracted this somewhat by alternating with bites of pure dog that were hanging out of either end of the bun. I was tempted to decompose the hot dog and and eat the hashbrown and other components individually with a fork, but where's the fun in that? I was worried the Taylor ham and hotdog would come out too salty but the flavors complimented each other surprisingly well. All in all, this was a great dog. And it was huge- probably more than one person should eat (remember, I ordered it as a footlong). There were two of us so we cut each dog in half and shared. Had we been much hungrier we might have been able to also fit in an order of fries, but not this time.
Next was the burrito dog. We got this built with the Thumann's dog, so it was a little more manageable of a size. However, there was still a lot going on here. The burrito dog is the thinking man's dog. This preparation, in fact, will cause you to question your own definition of what a hot dog is. Forget about the age-old "is a hot dog a sandwich?" argument, order the Burrito Dog and engage your dining companions in a verbal dual about whether or not a Burrito Dog even counts as a hot dog...
The burrito wrapper was somehow both soft and crispy at the same time. This might be due to our eating it almost directly from the fryer, at the little canopy-covered benches right outside the restaurant. And even though there was a torrential downpour of rain that started right after we started eating, this canopy was just the right dimensions to protect us from the wind-whipped rain, yet was open enough to prevent it from being too hot (and was certainly open enough to help allay any lingering covid fears you may have). Pro Tip: The burrito dog, being completely wrapped and then deep-fried, retains its heat much longer than your regularly-constructed hot dogs. I cut ours in half (and we started with the Jersey Dog to give time for the Burrito Dog to cool down some). But, you may also use this superpower to your advantage- if ordering to-go, or if you are passing through at an inconvenient time, order the Burrito Dog and it'll still be hot enough to eat an hour later! The chili (you have to specify spicy or mild; we opted for mild as I am a big wuss about spicy foods) was excellent- not to overpowering, but full of the right flavors and textures. The menu describes it as coming with a dollop of sour cream which I am not sure I got, but it doesn't really need it (maybe the spicy one does?). I reall liked this dog and if I had to do it over, I'd get this one. But I'd like to try a few more before declaring my favorite. As I said, the Pizza Dog was an initial contender, and the next time I have an opportunity to stop in to Jersey Dogs, I will get that one. The falafel dog intrigues me greatly. The Jersey Girl (like the prototypical Jersey girl) seems like a delicious hot mess.... There's so much here I want to try.
What we didn't realize until we got there was that they have their own brand of soft drinks- bottled in a refrigerator by the front door. I doubt they are made on site but it's a cute thing to check out and the ones we picked (cream soda and wild cherry) also happened to be caffeine free). They were really good and quite refreshing.
Will definitely be back to try something new when I'm in the area. Almost forgot to mention; the lady (owner?) who I talked to was so nice and friendly. We chatted a bit about local weather events, joked around a little, etc. Hopefully she's there when I go back!
