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Eat this: Chicago Dog at River Dogs of Boulder Creek
Of all the regional hot dogs in America, the Chicago dog might make the least sense from a culinary standpoint. The recipe includes region-specific ingredients like neon-green sweet pickle relish and a Vienna Beef hot dog, as well as tomato wedges, pickled sport peppers, yellow mustard, chopped white onion and a dash of celery salt on a steamed poppy-seed bun.
The combination may sound unusual to anyone outside of the Midwest, but the balance of sweet relish and tomato with crunchy, spicy pickles and peppers, the herbal celery salt and fluffy bun, with a snappy all-beef hot dog has made the Chicago dog an icon. No trip to the Windy City is complete without it, and the recipe is replicated at hot dog stands throughout the U.S.
But the only place to get a true, real-deal Chicago dog in Central California is at River Dogs, a hot dog stand in a parking lot behind Joe’s Bar in Boulder Creek, in the far northern end of the San Lorenzo Valley, a half-hour’s drive from the coast. While the rest of the ingredients can be replicated, River Dogs is the only hot dog stand in the region that carries real Vienna Beef hot dogs.
Now, the dogs can also be found midweek through the summer at Humble Sea Brewing’s seasonal pop-up beer garden on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf.
Read the full story about this local treasure here.
Best of the Week Ahead
Below, find a curated list of the best food and drink events in Santa Cruz County for the coming week. At the top, I share my picks of unmissable local happenings.
News of the week
ICYMI – here are the food news stories from Lookout that you might have missed, plus important news from beyond our borders picked by yours truly.
Legislators vote to keep ‘lifesaving’ farmers market food program (Lookout)
Lily Belli on Food: A go-to summer wine and a frying life hack (Lookout)
Eaters Digest: Pericos taco at Taqueria Los Pericos (Lookout)
California junk fee law: Restaurants could be exempt under last-minute bill (San Francisco Chronicle)