New hot dog stand, Forest park il

Hello all..

Joel Albright here, Hot Dog University Graduate and proud owner of Smokey Joels
Red Hots.
I would like to invite you all to my Hot Dog Stand at 810 S Beloit ave in Forest Park Il,
Located off Harrison street across from Forest Park's Park District.

Serving quality Chicago style hot dogs and polish,House made Italian Beef,Chili,Lemonade and Italian ice.

Been open 5 months now,its a small place but i have outside seating available.

Check out my FACEBOOK page,Google and Yelp

Hope to see you soon.

Joel

Joel,

Are you serving natural casing dogs and/or fresh cut fries?

Sorry,i do not have the capacity for a deep fryer. I use a 8-1 skinless, and a bag of chips come with any hot dog/polish/italian beef

i will be introducing Italian sausage and meatball sandwiches in the near future.

SMOKEYJOEL wrote:Sorry,i do not have the capacity for a deep fryer. I use a 8-1 skinless

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck. Hopefully, the neighborhood will support you.

Thanks for the support.

stevez wrote:

SMOKEYJOEL wrote:Sorry,i do not have the capacity for a deep fryer. I use a 8-1 skinless

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck. Hopefully, the neighborhood will support you.

Wow. Rude.

Steve was nowhere near to being rude. Here, I'll give you something to whine about.

Skinless dogs are just nasty, pasty, sad little things that don't belong in Chicago. I'd say they are made for a childs' palate but that's an insult to children. They are simply disgusting and cheap.

Rocky419 wrote:

stevez wrote:

SMOKEYJOEL wrote:Sorry,i do not have the capacity for a deep fryer. I use a 8-1 skinless

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck. Hopefully, the neighborhood will support you.

Wow. Rude.

There's nothing rude about being honest. I thought the response was polite. We're not necessarily cheerleaders here, folks. Genuine opinions are always welcome and encouraged.

For many of us, skinless dogs are just not worth seeking out or making a dedicated trip for. I guess Steve's in that camp, which is why he wished Joel the best and hoped the neighborhood would support him. Hot dog stands are ubiquitous in Chicago so it seems reasonable to assume that unless one is providing something exceptional, the best path to survival and success is gaining the support of the neighborhood in which it's located. I don't think many people will travel very far for a skinless dog and no french fries but I certainly could be wrong about that.

=R=

To all..

I did not know i created such a fuss, but here is my response.

I am a fan of natural casing hot dogs, however for my location where there is a lot of kids,a natural casing hot dog would not work. the texture is something they are not used to.

If you choose to look at the size of my establishment, i am challenged in space. I have about 350 square feet to work with,and use it all. So that is the reason for no deep fat fryer/grill. I have a small convection oven coming and will be doing the mentioned meatball/sausage and some other creative things i can do. I am going to use my culinary school skills to prove that.

For the comment of cheap, i am actually showing value in the 8-1 hot dog from Vienna. Breaking down the cost of a 10-1 natural casing hot dog versus the 8-1 skinless,the cost of it is the same. It does take a close eye to make sure the hot dogs(any of them for that matter) do not sit in the water too long. And they need to stay HOT, a properly steamed poppy seed and fresh condiments are a must as well. I am a one man show, and all of the above are under my watchfull eye at all times.

If you folks dont think a good dog could be had at my stand, come by and i will buy you lunch. If you dont like it,fine. no loss to you.

Joel

I see no rudeness either. I am also a natural casing fan (Vollwerth's from Hancock, Michigan being the best). Of course, I expect others to have their own favorites. If you control the process well as you have outlined, you should be fine. The neighborhood would have to support that though as you will lose a substantial amount of natural casing fans. Being fans, they tend to travel for good ones.

Rocky419 wrote:

stevez wrote:

SMOKEYJOEL wrote:Sorry,i do not have the capacity for a deep fryer. I use a 8-1 skinless

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck. Hopefully, the neighborhood will support you.

Wow. Rude.

Wow. I'm not sure where that is coming from. I simply asked SMOKEYJOEL if he served natural casing dogs and fries. If he did, I would have made the trek to Forest Park to check out his stand. I've been known to travel even farther than that for a good dog. When he said he didn't serve either item, I expressed my disappointment and wished him luck with his new spot. I'm not sure how that could be considered rude, but if it was, I apologize.

All this empassioned back-and-forth over hot dogs is so . . . 2002!

=R=

We were waiting for them to reopen for this summer.

Not sure if that is still on?

Happened to be driving by yesterday and saw a signboard on the corner...

Thought something was happening?

Coming back I drove by the storefront and it seems to be some type of ice cream shop with little hand drawn signs noting “Italian Ice” and what not.

Didn’t stop, good location near the pool.